


D.I.V.E. University

by fesc



Category: Football RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Anal Sex, Crimes & Criminals, Heist, Humor, M/M, Minor Character(s), Past Relationship(s), Relationship(s), Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-24
Updated: 2018-01-24
Packaged: 2019-03-09 00:38:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 60,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13470012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fesc/pseuds/fesc
Summary: Deceitful. Insensate. Venturesome. Elite. University, the outside world know them as Divine. Incorruptible. Valorous. Entrant. University, a university of criminals with an anual game and crazy shows.A college AU where Raúl, Guti, Iker, and Sergio are the popular kids and con men, and David is a secret agent spying on them, and Gerard in and being a big trouble.....with some videos, tweets, and headlines as reference. I lost track.And a trip to Barcelona, with some things that don't make sense.





	1. Prologue: It All Started with You!

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time writing, and there were a lot of things that won't make sense here, but I hope you enjoy!

“Kevin Roland, it all started with you.”  
“Gerard, you can't say that!” Lucho exasperated behind the camera.  
“I was just starting a narrative.” They were in the detention room. Gerard was confessing for an incident, another drama he made last night. And in their university, of course every punishment must be followed with recorded confession. They had to learn how to make it cool if they ever got caught in real life, because if they’re going to go down, they’re going to go down in style.

\---

It all started, pretty much with Kevin Roland, not that the guy did anything wrong, Cristiano was just having one hell of a birthday party, with the singer enlivened it. And Gerard wasn’t invited.

  
That didn't stop him from crushing the party though. When he heard Cris was having a wild party with probability of it turning into some orgy, well, he couldn’t help himself from crushing in and ruining it.  
“Really, Cris?!” he shouted as he ran into that guy. “First my best friend, and then the whole university, now what? Everyone else in the universe?”  
People in the party turned their heads at him. Some started making crowd around him and Cris.

  
“I have no time for this, Gerard.” Cris pushed him, “I know you hate me because I’m too good, but it’s not my fault. So you can calm down—"

“You calm down!” Gerard snarled. “This is not you, Cris. You don't even know these people.”

“Yeah, but I'm pretty sure they know me.” Cris smirked.

Arbeloa pushed through the crowd. “You're not invited here, Gerard. What are you doing here, shouldn't you be in another party? Celebrating the mysterious invaluable legacy inherited to you?”

He was supposed to be celebrating something, there’s a party in another building, but fuck it, he didn’t even know where to get the legacy and the legacy had brought more trouble to him than fun. “I have no idea how to get the legacy, so I decided to crash here.” And just because why not, he decided to push Arbeloa’s button, “Figure I can get some entertainment, there’s always something good at this time of the night, like maybe watching some comedy about a bet that someone can get you pregnant faster than a whale can get pregnant.”  
Arbeloa landed a hard punch on his face. But that only got Gerard laughed harder. He remembered very well that one bet in a party when Arbeloa’s boyfriend failed to answer a quick question in a drinking game correctly, not knowing that whale can get pregnant. Some people in the crowd definitely remembered that too, because they started laughing. Arbeloa however, didn’t find the humour in it, “Even when you’ve got everything and your own party you still remember us and need to come crushing to our party. This is not a comedy club, you need a new hobby, Piqué”

Gerard was still laughing because he succeeded in provoking the reaction, “Who can forget such things? Your parties are basically a grand comedy show, remember when you all got suspended for inviting the wrong people and holding the party in the wrong place? And you guys are clowns, have you taken your boyfriend to a date in Austria to see a kangaroo? Seriously, when would you teach him some lesson about animals? And now you guys invited Kevin Roland to this party, wanna have some fun, huh? Where’s the meal by the way?” he took a gulp of drink from someone who passed by, bringing tray of wine glasses, “And what is this? Water?” he pulled the glass from his face to see the contains. Typical Cris. “When does the quick questions game start? Will you guys have it in this party? Or is it just gonna be some orgy?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” By this point the crowd surrounding them had gotten bigger. Arbeloa took a microphone to announce, “I’m sorry for the inconvenience, my friend here is obsessed with us.” But instead of making the crowd disperse, the crowd only getting bigger.

Gerard snatched the microphone from Arbeloa, “I just want to make it clear that this person is not my friend, he’s just a _cono_ … _cido_ ” Some people in the crowd actually laughed at how he cleverly played the words. _Cono_ is a derogatory term while _conocido_ means acquaintance.

Arbeloa quickly snatched the microphone back from him, “No, he’s not my friend, that’s why he wouldn’t be invited for tonight’s meal. We only go with our friends.” He turned to Gerard, still using the microphone when he spoke, “So you can go home and sit your ass on that treasurable legacy. Oh wait, you said you can’t find it? I don’t know that it’s so hard to find a legacy that has been inherited to you.”

Gerard leaned forward to speak on the microphone, “Someone who has nothing to be inherited to has no say in this.”

“Excuse me,” Guti pushed his way through the crowd, taking the microphone from Arbeloa, “So you’re the funniest man on the planet when you make fun of us, but when people make fun of you they’re just a bunch of clowns?” Gerard was about to come up with a retort, but Guti didn’t let him, “How about this, you can’t find your own legacy? I bet we can find it and take it from you!”

Oh, this can be fun, “You really want to bet?”

Arbeloa took the microphone back, “How about we make the bet as a competition in The D.I.V.E. Games? I think you know very well that we have won the games more times than you.”  
Gerard laughed sarcastically at that, “And when was the last time you won again?”

From the stage, Esteban had taken over another microphone, “Piqué, please, put your inferiority complex to one side and respect your superiors.”

Gerard took a swig and held high his glass, “To my superiors!” some people in the crowd was cheering while others started to fight them for cheering. Soon, the party became a lot of mess.

“Stop it, guys! Stop it!” somebody grabbed Gerard by the arm and dragged him out of the party. It was Charles, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?! Seriously, you need to grow up, Gerard. You need to stop it, all of you.”

Gerard was grumbling and protesting for being dragged like a child while Charles kept dragging him and ranting about how childish he was. Then he heard his name being called, he turned around to see who it was. Charles stopped dragging him, but kept his grip in Gerard’s arm.

It was Cris, “Gerard, why did you come here?”

You fucking know why, Cris, he wanted to say, but instead he only said, “Happy birthday, Cris.”

 

\--

Iker was enjoying the morning as he walked on the field when suddenly he was attacked.

“Se te quiere, Melón!” Sergio jumped at Iker’s back and kissed his cheek vigorously, legs wrapping on his waist, arms clinging on his neck.

“Sese…” Iker tried to get him off. Sergio finally jumped off him and ran fast and laughed at Iker’s attempt to chase him, Iker’s run on a race was a total disaster. “Come here! I’m going to kill you!”

Sergio finally took pity on his friend and stopped running. He picked up something from the grass that he had put there. His grin was so wide and ridiculous as he handed Iker a large melon wrapped in a bow.

“What are you trying to bribe me for now?” Iker looked at the melon in front of him, definitely not interested.

Sergio pouted, is he that easy to read? “I need you to convince Raúl for this year’s game.”

“I thought Raúl had made it clear he wouldn’t approve that, and that was Guti asking him.”

“Exactly!” Sergio exclaimed. “He will listen to you, Iker, please, I can’t—”

When Sergio didn’t finish his sentence Iker asked, “You have other motive, don’t you?” Sergio looked up, trying to blink away the tears, but Iker saw that, he wrapped his arms around Sergio, caressing his back to calm him down, “Sssh.. Nene, what is it?”

Sergio buried his face in Iker’s shoulder, “He’s leaving.” Sergio started to sob, “I don’t even know why it upsets me so much, I never had him, I could never lose him.”


	2. D.I.V.E. University: The Detention Room Show and All The Love Between Us

Xabi was the producer of the university TV shows, and he was good at his job. His partners? Not so much. Like the presenter…

 

“Xabi!!!” Thomas voice was shattering his ear as soon as he picked up the phone.

He was still on his way to the class. Not in the class yet, so he picked up the phone. “What is it?”

As soon as he answered Thomas started chattering, “You remember my idea for a break show, right? Recess show, passing time show, whatever. We haven’t decided yet. Anyway, you should come to the detention room, okay? We got an exclusive interview there.”

Xabi cut him off, “I haven’t given you a permission! And it’s ten minutes before the class starts!”

“That’s why it’s the break show! Look, I have managed to skip our class. Basti and Lukas couldn’t skip their class. So they managed to be sent off to the detention room—”

“What?!” Xabi didn’t want to go to the detention room, but he felt like he had some responsibility to whatever his stupid crew was doing, so he ran to the detention room as fast as he could with three heavy books under his arm, and phone on the other hand.

Thomas continued, “Well, we need our camera men, right? They wanted to glue Mr. Low’s chair, but it’s getting old and the last time they did that, they ended up cleaning the chair instead of being sent off the class. Then they remember they haven’t do their homework, so they glued the homework pages from Mr. Low’s book together, hoping if he can’t find the page, the homework would be called off. But it didn’t work, and he didn’t seem to send them out the class. So they go with the old trick, they called each other with the ringtone so loud, and they talked on their phone with speaker—”

The detention room was in another building, so he had to cross the field for a shortcut. But the field was filled with a lot of birds, even more people, lying on the ground, on their feet, on bikes—and he crashed with one of them, and he landed on the ground, rather ungracefully.

The sound of the crash and his whine in pain might have gone through the phone, because when he put his phone back to his ear Thomas had stopped his babbling. “What is that?”

“Nothing,” Xabi winced in pain, started picking up his book and tried to get up. The person on bike he crashed with, lend a hand, and helped him stand up.

 

“I’m sorry.”

“No, no, no. I’m sorry,” Xabi looked up. It’s Steven. _Great, embarrassing himself in front of his boyfriend._ He thought.

“Why are you sorry?” Thomas asked.

“No, not you!” he responded to the phone.

Steven, however, looked worried. “Hey, you’re okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

Thomas commented, “Didn’t ask. But okay.”

Xabi ignored Thomas’ remark and started running again, but Steven grabbed his arm.

“What’s the rush? Let me take you, okay? Get on the bike.”

Xabi gave him a look. “I’m going to the detention room.”

“Yeah, we’re waiting…” Thomas sounded rather impatient.

Steven laughed, “For getting on the bike?”

This time, Xabi put his phone down on his side. “No, I’m going to the detention room!”

“Oh,” Steven said. “Well, get on the bike.”

 

They ride the bike inside the building, through the crowded hallways, the stairs, all the way to the detention room. They left a lot of mess. A lot of people screamed as they passed. Steven seemed like a very good biker, maybe acrobatic. It’s a miracle they didn’t crash anyone or anything. Xabi held on him for dear life. “Oh, no. I’m going to the detention room!”

They stopped right in front of the detention room. Xabi get off the bike.

“What is there, anyway?” asked Steven.

“You’ll see. For now, just get rid of the bike before you have to get in this room!” Xabi warned before he got in.

Xabi had no idea whom they were going to interview. By the time he arrived, they had been filming and he was stunned by the scene in front of him.

Somehow, they had turned the detention room into a studio. No teacher. _How?_ Xabi thought. Lukas and Basti were filming all of this. In the middle of the room, Guti was had made himself sit comfortably on a chaise with his legs stretched, interviewed by Thomas. Iker was painting something on the corner of the room, near the floor to ceiling window. Sergio was trying to distract him with a paint brush while Raúl was trying to get Sergio as far as possible from Iker and the painting. _So, Los Blancos, huh?_

 “—that’s why we love to get ourselves into the detention room! You can say we have a VIP card!” Guti said proudly. “To the detention room,” he added. “But still, VIP.” He smirked. “But it’s rather hard to get Iker here, he’s such a saint, Raúl is even harder, he’s an angle. But in the end, they’re gonna stand up for me and Sergio and get themselves involved too, and here we are! It’s awesome! Don’t you think? I mean, it’s exclusive here. It might not be as good as our rooms, but we can’t really get there during these hours, and we have everything here! Just the four of us! I can get myself a rest and Iker can have more time to paint his masterpiece. We can study by ourselves later.” he paused. “If we need to,” he added. “But we can’t study with the others in those crowded class, because—” he tried to come up with something. “It’s boring and well, you know us. We’re above everyone else, we—”

Raúl decided to sit by Guti’s side and kissed his check before cutting him off, “What did I say? We should keep a low profile.”

Guti grinned at him “Well, too late for that. Don’t you think? We’ve been the stars for ages.”

“Just as long as you’ve been together,” Thomas agreed. “How about you and Iker, Sergio? Are you two really together?”

Sergio stopped teasing Iker with a paint brush and grinned. “You answer this,” he whispered quietly to Iker.

Iker stopped painting. “We would like to keep our personal lives out from the media,” he said.

“So, it’s a yes?” Thomas made sure.

Iker looked at him from his painting, “I didn’t say that.”

“You heard that!” Thomas said to the camera. “Seriker is real!”

“Ser—what?!” Iker said incredulously. “Why do you guys keep making up stories about us?!”

“Yeah, why?!” Sergio pointed at the camera with the paint brush, and tried to look intimidating, but he just looked ridiculous. Raúl had to put his hand over Guti’s mouth to stop him from laughing.

Iker, on the other hand, was far more effectively intimidating with his glare. “Why do you guys think that we’re together?! I’m offended!” 

“Yeah! I’m—” Sergio stopped and turned to Iker, “Wait, what? What is wrong with being with me?” he looked scandalized.

Iker ignored that. “Why is it you, anyway? Where’s the girl reporter?” he asked.

“Oh, she kinda freaked out after you kissed her in that interview, so she quits.” Thomas said earning a loud laugh from Sergio and Guti. Raúl just shook his head, while Iker, after being stunned for a few milliseconds just shrugged it off and continued painting.

Thomas changed the topic. “So, Iker, what are you painting? Would you show us?”

Iker gave the camera a deathly stare, “No! Absolutely not!”

“It’s a secret. It’s related to our project this year, for The D.I.V.E. Games” Raúl explained. They have the games each year. It’s a tradition. Anyone with any number of group can join and make any kind of project. Raúl, Guti, Iker, and Sergio had been everyone’s favorite to win the competition, they made projects that would grab the whole university attention with its element of surprise. The university TV show would usually cover the games.

“Oh, your famous project!” Thomas said enthusiastically.

“Yeah, that’s why we want to keep it a secret. For the surprise.” Raúl winked at the camera.

Lukas, however, had made his way to Iker, trying to get a picture of the painting, while Xabi managed to switch to Lukas’ camera, he really needed his assistant. And Iker, with his incredible reflexes, turned the painting on another side with one hand, and painted the camera lenses with the other, earning a scream of protest from Lukas, “No!! Why do you do that?”

Thomas quickly improvised, “Well, can’t wait for the surprise? We neither! And that’s surprise in the making right from the detention room, see you later!”

 

 

When Xabi got out of that room, Steven had been waiting for him. “I can’t believe you came late to class for this, but that was good. What do you call the show?” Steven asked as he walked following Xabi to their class.

“I can’t believe you came late to class for streaming the show,” Xabi responded.

“I waited for you,” Steven said.

Xabi turned his head to him, “You shouldn’t have.”

Steven gave him a kiss on cheek, “But I wanted to.”

Behind them, Thomas barged in enthusiastically, “Oh, I know what we’re going to call the show! The Detention Room Show!”

Xabi glared at Thomas, “No! Absolutely not! We’re not filming there again!” He walked to his class quickly. Then he turned back to Thomas, “And you better fix the camera!”

 

 

David took a seat in the university’s cafeteria. He put his tray on the table, with a cupcake beside his meal. He looked around him before returning to the cupcake. He had chosen an empty seat, far enough from crowd of people, but still… _he can’t be too careful, can he?_

He whispered, “Alright, Vic, what should I do?”

“This isn’t your first mission, David, and I’ve told you to look for any indication of property crime in the university.”

David leaned closer to the cupcake, “Can you be more specific? You don’t send me for kids stealing each other pens, right?”

“No. We believe someone in that university had stolen a painting from a museum. I would send you the picture. That painting has a key to something else, a clue, that would lead to another. I’m not sure exactly what, it’s a legacy, something like a treasure, a secret treasure, belong to a family, our client, so you can’t let them have it.”

“You think the students know about all that and stole the painting?”

“I don’t know if they’re students. The university itself is suspicious. I mean, Divine. Incorruptible. Valorous. Entrant. University? Seriously? Add on, the thief was so smart, leaving almost no trace. So I can’t say we got enough evidence. But if we can catch them this time, we may have. Just because you go undercover as a student doesn’t mean you’ll be investigating the students only. I don’t know if it’s the students or the teachers, maybe both. You figure. Go mingle with your friends and teachers.” A pause. “Wait, you’ve made friends, haven’t you?”

David didn’t answer.

“David! For the sake of our mission—”

David cut her off, “Alright, I’ll make some! Since the only one I have is a cupcake over here. Now, shut up! I’m talking to a cupcake, it would be hard to make friends if anyone finds out.”

“Well, I want it to be disposable and unsuspicious.”

“So can I eat it now?”

“Sure, just don’t eat the communicator inside it.”

David smiled. The cupcake did seem delicious and he couldn’t wait to taste it. He brought the cupcake to his mouth. But before it reached his mouth, it’s snatched out of his mouth.

“Whoa! Where did you get this?” A tanned-skin guy with long blond hair had took his cupcake and casually sat in front of him, and ate it.

David looked at him wide-eyed. Talking about property crime. But he was present right there, so it’s not a property crime.

“Chocolate cheese cake?!” His cupcake snatcher had done eating the whole cupcake and started licking cream from his fingers. “Unbelievable! This is so delicious! This chocolate melts!” He’s licking his lips, looking for some trace of cream. “I want more! You have more of this?”

“No! and it was mine!” David shrieked.

His cupcake snatcher looked at him innocently. Finger still in his mouth. He looked like a kid who pretended to look sorry after licking the cream on a cake—no, scratch that, the _whole_ cake—and it’s effective. David felt his anger started fading away. But then the cupcake snatcher said something that brought all the anger back, even doubled it, “You sound like a girl!” drawing his head back and laughing.

“At least I don’t look like horse.” David started filling his mouth his meal, chewing angrily.

The laugh stopped. “What?”

David pointed his finger at the horse-like cupcake snatcher, “You look like a horse.”                                  

“Hey! Just because you look like a princess—”

“Prince!” David knew it’s ridiculous, but he couldn't help himself.

“No! Princess!”

David shook his head. He should be the bigger man here if he really wanted to make friends. “Alright, forget this, okay?”

The cupcake snatcher grinned, “You’re new here, right?”

David can’t help his tendency to be suspicious, “If you think you can take advantage—”

“No, I’m just being nice!” he held out his hand, “Sergio.”

David took Sergio’s hand, “David.”

“Sorry about your cake, I saw you talking with it, and I thought wow, it must be one kind of a cake. I just wanted to take a bite, but then it’s so delicious I kinda ate the whole thing.”

“Kinda? You _ate_ the whole thing!” _And the communicator_ , David thought. Then it hit him. He leaned across the table and grabbed Sergio’s shoulder, “Are you okay? You don’t wanna throw up or something?”

Sergio looked confused “Um, no?” added, “and yeah, I’m great! It was one delicious cake. Look, l’m sorry, okay? Let me buy you something.” He stood up and dragged David along with him to the cafeteria counter, where he ordered a drink for David.

The drink was served in front of Sergio, so Sergio slid it to him. But before it reached him, a hand wrapped in a glove came between him and Sergio and took the drink. David turned around to see a guy drinking it edaciously. It must have been his unluckiest day.

“Iker!” Sergio called the guy who took David’s drink. “What happened? Why are you wearing your kit?”

Iker put the empty glass down. “I’ve just finished training, and I heard he’s coming back.”

“Who?” Sergio asked.

“Cesc.”

“Who is Cesc?” David didn’t realize he said it out loud until Iker turned to him and gave him a cold look.

“Who are you?”

“Oh, Iker, it’s David, David, meet Iker,” Sergio introduced him before adding casually, “Oh, and Cesc is his ex.”

“Why do you have to tell him that?” Iker glared at Sergio.

 “He asked,” Sergio pouted. “What is it with Cesc anyway?”

David felt bad to interfere, so he just took a seat and ordered another drink.

“Sergio, you have to help me,” Iker said. “Be my boyfriend.”

“What?!” then Sergio teased, “Oh, I’m your boyfriend now?”

“He’s bringing his new boyfriend! And the last time he’s here he thought I was with you!”

“But we had never really been together! And on the double date, his boyfriend was all over you! I hate it that you cheated on me even on a fake date. I felt like a fourth wheel! And you never even properly asked me!”

Iker rolled his eyes, “I didn’t cheat, Gerard was just teasing you.” He sighed, “Sergio Ramos Garcia, would you be my boyfriend?”

Sergio grabbed the drink that has just been served to David and splashed it on Iker’s face. “I can’t believe you actually ask me!”

“Well _you_ asked me to ask you!” Iker wiped his face with his gloved-hand. “And what was that for?”

“For playing with me! Look, just face him casually and be honest that you don’t have a boyfriend. What’s wrong with that? You’re not even his last boyfriend!”

“But _he_ is my last boyfriend!” Iker sat next to David and casually drank another drink David had ordered. David felt like shit. At least he had drunk that one. “Oh, what am I supposed to do?”

Sergio sat next to Iker. “Or you can ask David,” he suggested.

Iker winced, “No! he’s with David!”

David was confused.

Sergio was exasperated, “No, not that David! _That_ David!” he pointed at David.

But Sergio’s hand was behind Iker’s back, so Iker didn’t notice, “De Gea?”

Sergio grabbed Iker by shoulder and turned him around on his chair to face David. “That. That David.”

“Me?” David asked.

“He’s David?” Iker looked at David like it was the first time he saw him.

“I’ve just introduced you a few minutes ago!” Sergio cried incredulously, “I thought your memory was supposed to be amazing!”

“Oh yeah, I remember.” Iker was still looking at David, assessing. David felt uneasy under his gaze, but couldn’t look away. It was like if he was hypnotized.

“Come on, look at him,” Sergio said. “He’s good looking, has a sense of fashion that you don’t have—”

At that, Iker covered Sergio’s mouth with his gloved-hand. But Sergio kept mumbling under the glove, “Nice blond hair, shoulder length,— ”

Iker uncovered Sergio’s mouth. “I hate your long hair, when would you cut it?”

“Not in a million years,” Sergio replied. “But you can’t argue that it looks good on him. He looks like a rock star, don’t you think?”

Iker was still looking at David, “Hmm, ring a bell, but can’t remember the name.”

“And again, I thought your memory was amazing. But yeah, I can’t remember it either.” Sergio shrugged “And he’s got funny accent, he’s from.. Hey, David where are you from?”

“England,” David answered, still unable to take his eyes away from Iker.

“He’s from England,” Sergio continued. “And he’s got tattoos! Yeah, Iker, come on! He’s just like me! He’s totally your type!”

David felt embarrassed at that, and Iker’s intense stare didn’t make it any better. He wished he’s not blushing right now. Iker leaned closer to him, eyes still assessing. “So?” Iker said.

David leaned back. The chair doesn’t have a backrest, if he leaned any more he would fall, “So?”

“So asked him!” Sergio cried desperately.

“David, be my boyfriend.” Iker said, locking his eyes with David as he could make David do anything he wanted. With that stare, maybe he could, David thought.

Sergio buried his face in his hands, “Not like that. Iker, why you’re so bossy.”

“Would you?” Iker added.

Sergio slumped forward in his seat.

“Okay,” David found himself saying.

Sergio sat up straight, couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. “What?”

Iker fist his hands in the air triumphantly “Yes, I’ve got a boyfriend!”

Iker looked so happy and David couldn’t help but smiled.

Sergio gaped at David, “I can’t believe you said yes!”

Iker turned to Sergio, “That’s because he didn’t. He said ‘okay.’ Wait, why would you tell me to ask him if you don’t think he would say yes?”

Sergio glared at Iker, “Not if you ask him like that! This is exactly why Cesc left you. You’re nothing about romance!”

Iker was about to reply, but then suddenly, Thomas, Bastian, and Lukas showed up out of nowhere. Lukas and Bastian with their cameras, and Thomas jumped happily and ran towards them with his microphone. “You see that? Iker Casillas has got a boyfriend!” He turned Bastian’s camera, “And we’re covering it live on the spot!” he turned to David, “Hey, David, you’re the new kid, right? How does it feel like to be Iker Casillas’ boyfriend?” David was too stunned to reply, but Thomas continued, “You’re gonna be famous in a minute! You’re climbing up that ladder so fast!”

David blinked, “Wait, what?”

Iker gave his death glare to Thomas, “Get off, Müller.”

“Being protective, huh?” Thomas teased. But when Iker wasn’t affected at all and keep giving him death glare. Thomas backed away.

Sergio raised an eyebrow at Iker, “Protective, huh?”

“And you said I wasn’t romantic.”

“That’s not romantic,” Sergio said flatly. “That’s just creepy.”

Then with both hands, Iker grabbed David by the sides of his face, firmly. His gloves were not clean, there was grass and dirt and it’s sticking on David’s face. But David couldn’t care less as Iker’s lips found his in a firm kiss. David realized Müller was still there, and the cameras were still on him, but Iker was such a good kisser that everything else faded away from his senses. Then Iker pulled away, and David missed him already. “I’ll see you later,” Iker whispered, leaving David stunned.

 

\---

 

David finally got another drink all to himself, as he’s about to sip from the straw, he heard the straw talking to him. _Oh, now it’s a straw, he can’t eat it, at least nobody would steal it from him and swallow it._ “David! David! Say something!”

“I’m thirsty,” David whispered as he put his lips closed to the straw.

“No, no, no, don’t do it!”

“Hey, I really am thirsty here!” David felt irritated. “It’s a straw now?”

“It’s not just a straw. It has our newest spying technology, you can check that up later.”

David felt grateful that Victoria didn’t decide to put that technology inside the cupcake. She probably had considered the chances of it getting swallowed all through the digestive system. “What is it now, Vic?”

“Have you checked your phone?”

“No, why?” Now David was just looking at the drink.

“I’ve sent you a picture of the painting. Now you just have to look for it.”

“And how exactly?” suddenly he got a brilliant—not really—idea—no, not to look for the painting—to just drink it from the glass.

“I don’t know, ask everybody and see if any of them know about the painting, or stalk everybody to see if any of them have it. Hey you’re listening to me right? I—” The straw fell to the floor and rolled away.

“Oh, shit” David bent to picked it up, but somebody kicked it out of his reach, and there’s someone else kicking it even further, and someone else. “Shit! Shit! Shit! Why didn’t she just make a regular phone call? An untraceable cellphone with latest spying tech or something.” He had to run to get that straw back.

 

 

“Where is it, Raúl?” Guti walked around the detention room. “I’ve tried to remember that painting in case there’s another painting here. But there’s no painting at all!”

Raúl looked just as worried, “Maybe Iker and Sergio had taken it, let’s go.”

“No! We agreed they’re gonna make it—or _Iker’s_ gonna make it—and _we_ ’re gonna take the painting from here and pack it.” Guti sighed. “I’ve told you we’re supposed to take it right away when we got out of this room.”

“When everyone was out there in the hallways? When we had nothing to cover it?”

“Alright, I get your point, but still—”

Raúl’s phone rang . It was Iker. “Yes, Iker?”

“Hey, you’ve got the painting out?”

Guti had put his ear on the phone, ignoring Raúl’s protest, he snatched the phone out of Raúl’s hand. “Guess what? We haven’t even _got_ the painting! Fuck, Iker, where did you put it?!”

“I’ve told you I put it in the hidden safe we made under the windows, where I usually put it, weren’t you listening?!” Iker sounded pissed off.

That made Guti angrier, “It’s not always because everybody didn’t listen to you! Now _you_ listen, Iker, we’ve looked everywhere, we’ve looked in the safe and the rest of this room, it’s not here!”

“No, you listen,” Iker deadpanned. “You get out of there, Mourinho’s coming.”

“Mou’s coming!” Guti told Raúl.

“Oh, no, don’t come out, he’s going to see you if you come out now.” Iker said as he saw Mourinho walked towards the door to the detention room.

“And he’s going to see us too if we stay here!” Guti pointed out. “What should we do?” he whispered, half to Raúl, half to Iker on the phone. “I know! We’ll hide in the safe!” Guti ran to the windows.

“No, idiot!” Raúl and Iker said simultaneously.

“Hey, it’s just mean. It’s enough that one of you said it.”

“We won’t fit,” Raúl walked over to where Guti’s standing and opened the windows. “In case you haven’t noticed, the safe is only a drawer with depth about ten centimetres. We’ll get out of the window.”

“Are you fucking out of your mind?!” Guti growled but kept his voice low. “In case you haven’t noticed, we’re on the third story.”

“Is Raúl suggesting you get out through the window?” Iker asked.

“Yes! Tell him, Iker, tell him he’s crazy.”

“Actually, go, go!”

“What? You’re just as crazy as he is!” Guti shouted at the phone.

Raúl grabbed Guti by the hand and guided, “Just get out, we’ll climb the wall down, it has many windows and panels for support.” He got out first, put his feet on frame of a window on the lower story, when he saw that Guti still hesitated, he assured, “I’ll keep you safe, I promise.”

“Alright, Iker, we gotta get out from here, bye.” Guti put the phone in his pocket and climbed out the window, he was still upset. “Very sweet, Raúl, very sweet.” They managed to get out right before Mourinho came in. “Now how exactly are we gonna do this?”

Iker knew he had to face Mourinho there or Mourinho’s gonna come out of the room and locked it, and he’s probably not gonna see the painting ever again. Guti said it wasn’t in the room but he had to check it by himself, or probably, Mourinho knew where it was.

 

“Casillas, what are you doing here?” Mourinho asked as Iker came in.

“I’m looking for my painting. I painted one here.” _Why did they do it here again? Oh right, Sergio’s idea. ‘We can use the tools from the art studio, we don’t need to spend any money! And we can take those tools to the detention room, since they’re going to use the art studio. It’s easier to take over the detention room, we’ve been doing that for ages! And nothing in the detention room belongs to anyone, so  if the painting is ever discovered, it won’t lead straight to us!’ Only now it_ is _discovered, and he just confessed that the painting was his._

“Ah, that painting,” Mourinho strode across the room towards the windows. “You know, I was quite impressed by the hidden safe you made there, still quite easy to crack, but pretty creative.”

“Where is it?”

“The safe? Right where you made it.” Mourinho opened the safe. It was empty.

Iker was losing his patience. “The painting.”

“I sold it.”

“You what?! To whom?”

“It’s on the gallery, they’re selling art works this afternoon. This collector really wants a painting of an animal, but none of our students painted it this year, then I found your painting and it has a dog on it, so I sent it to the gallery.” Mourinho closed the safe. “You can go there and if you’re lucky, it may have not been sold yet, maybe you can offer a higher price.”

“I’m not buying my own painting!” he might have the money, but who would do that? “and the dog is so small, it can barely be called a painting of a dog!” _I’m not even sure if it’s a dog. The painting itself is not even original_ , but Iker would keep that one information from Mourinho.

“Honestly, at first glance, I thought it was a big head of a wolf,” Mourinho commented on the painting. “or you can always paint another one,” he suggested.

“You can’t just sell my painting!” Iker snarled.

“But I have!” Mourinho snapped back. “And if you’re going to take it back from the gallery without buying it,” He squinted his eyes at Iker, “You better replace it with another painting of a dog. Because I’ve told the collector, there’s gonna be a painting of a dog.” He paused before adding, “also with the men in a car, if you’d like, but I think the dog would do.”

Iker considered. “Or I can just take it after the collector bought it.”

“or yeah, you can do that,” Mourinho shrugged.

 

“You jump! I jump!” Guti said to Raúl as they reached the last possible stance on the wall.

Raúl looked at him in disbelief. “Did you just quote Jack Dawson on me?”

Guti couldn’t believe they’re talking about this. “No, I quoted Leo DiCaprio. Now jump!”

Instead of jumping right away, Raúl took the bait, “Yeah, in a totally different context. We’re saving ourselves by climbing off the walls, not committing suicide by jumping off the titanic into the sea!”

“You said you’d keep me safe Raúl! So it’s only fair you jump first so you can catch me!”

 _Is that another DiCaprio movie?_ Raúl rolled his eyes but complied, “Alright.” He aimed and jumped, landing smoothly on the grass. He looked up at Guti and opened his arms, “Your turn, I’ll catch you.”

“Oh, you seemed to need no catching.”

“Then just jump.”  Raúl folded his arms. But it was the exact moment when Guti decided to jump, but instead of aiming for an empty ground, he aimed for Raúl’s arms, which were now folded, so he crashed Raúl down to the ground.

Guti landed on top of Raúl, whom seemed to be unconscious. “Raúl! Raúl!” he slapped the sides Raúl’s face lightly. Raúl didn’t respond and now he panicked. “Raúl, wake up!” he sat up on Raúl’s thigh grabbing Raúl’s collar, shaking the guy to wake him up, “It doesn’t need to end up like Titanic! Wake up!” If Raúl hadn’t been messing with him, he might be going to regret his methods, but Raúl finally couldn’t hold back the smile and laughter anymore and burst out. If Guti didn’t love that laugh so much, he would do more than just slapping Raúl, “I hate you.”

Raúl was smiling at him, “You’re adorable.”

 _Damn, that smile_. Guti grabbed Raúl’s hands and brought them over his head, grinding their hips together, leaned down, and kissed him. “I’m getting my revenge,” he gritted, “I’ll do you right here.”

Raúl’s eyes went wide, “In front of everyone?” He looked to his sides, and realized there were many people around them. Not like those people were paying attention to them, but still—

“Yes…” Guti hissed and started kissing Raúl’s neck.

“You might wanna consider another way of getting your revenge, you know, it’s turning me on.” It was, Raúl could feel himself starting to get a hard on.

Guti drew back and looked down at Raúl, keeping their hand together, “That’s kinda the point.”

Raúl felt himself reddened, his eyes going wide. He didn’t expect Guti being serious. He felt a vibration between their hips. _Oh no, Guti wouldn’t go_ that _far, would he?_ Instead, Guti let go of his hands and groaned, drawing back completely.

Guti drew Raúl’s phone out of his pocket.

_Oh that. I couldn’t even hear it rang._

 “What now, Iker?!”

“Why do you keep answering Raúl’s phone? I call _him_ for a reason, you know.” Iker stopped himself from adding, _I mean, he has_ reason _ing_. “I know where the painting is, where are you?”

 

The four of them were sitting on the grass, desperate and out of ideas. “Can’t you just paint another one?” Guti asked.

“I don’t have enough time. The field trip is only a few days to go.” It had taken weeks for Iker to finish that painting, there’s no way he could do that in a few days.

“So we’re just going to take it from whoever is going to buy it?” Sergio repeated what Iker had suggested.

“No, we have to take it before it’s bought,” Raúl said. When the rest looked at him, he explained, “It’s a fake painting, Mourinho might not recognize it, but we cannot risk it exposed in an exhibition as our own.”

“So now what do we do?” Guti asked.

“We have to move now, we’re going to the gallery and take it.” Iker stood up. “But we’re going to have to replace the painting. Sergio, can you take another canvas and tools from the art studio?”

 

David finally caught the straw after ducking and crawling down the hallway. “Yes!” he cried in victory, still on his knees on the floor. Some people glanced at him weirdly, but he didn’t care, at least he had made friends now and they weren’t here. “Let’s see what you can do,” he started checking out the straw.

“Do you want to run a demo?”

It wasn’t Victoria’s voice. David looked around him. He couldn’t believe he had to talk with inanimate object _again_. He crawled to an empty hallway and sat down behind a plant. “This straw has an AI,” he said to himself.

“I’m an AI designed for—”

“Sssh shut up, Straw Girl” David cut off the straw. “Straw Girl, I’m gonna call you that.” He paused. “It sounds like struggle.” He considered, “which suits you.” He checked his phone and find the pic of a painting Victoria sent. It was two men in enormous fur coats riding an old car with a dog at the front.

He felt like he had seen the painting before, but couldn’t remember its name or the painter— _why didn’t Vic sent that information as well?_ —and if he could recognize it, other people might as well, which made finding out who knew about the painting was kinda useless. “What should I do? Stalking everyone here to see if anyone is talking about a painting of two men in enormous fur coats riding an old car with a dog at the front?”

He hadn’t expected Straw Girl to answer, but she did, “Scanning the university to find a conversation about painting of two men in enormous fur coats riding an old car with a dog at the front.”

“Oh, you can do that?”

“Conversation found. Searching for location.”

“Can’t you identify who are in the conversation?”

“My identification function only goes as far as your acquittance, considering you are alone and have no friends, I am sorry that I cannot identify anyone, and you must be sorry that you have no friend.”

 _An AI with sassy answer included, great._ “I have friends!”

 

Iker threw the paintbrush and canvas on the grass. “I can’t do it!”

Raúl took the paintbrush and crawled over to Iker. “Hey, it doesn’t need to be a masterpiece. We just need another painting of an animal, right?”

“An animal? The one that you painted before?” Guti, who was sitting in front of Iker, grabbed the canvas and another paintbrush and started painting.

“It looks like a guinea pig,” Sergio commented at Guti’s attempt to paint something.

“Shut up! It’s a lion!” Guti continued painting with confidence.

Sergio looked even more confused as Guti’s painting became even worse. “I thought it’s supposed to be a troll.” He took another paintbrush and decided to help.

“A troll is not an animal,” Guti said. “So it must be a lion.”

“It’s supposed to be a dog,” Iker didn’t even want to see what Guti and Sergio were painting.

Guti looked up from the canvas. “A german shepherd? A husky? A wolf?”

Iker shrugged. “A pug? St. Bernard? I don’t know, it faces the other way.”

“You mean it’s a painting of a dog ass?” Guti put his paintbrush down.

Sergio took over the whole canvas enthusiastically. “I can paint a dog’s ass!”

“It’s barely a painting of a dog,” Iker said flatly.

“I don’t remember much, Iker. But I don’t think I saw a dog in the painting.” Raúl tried to recall the painting.

“That’s because you saw a lion!” Guti desperately looked for someone who saw what he saw.

Iker couldn’t really blame any of them. None of them ever bother to actually took a look at the painting. “It’s a painting of two men in enormous fur coats riding an old car with a dog at the front.”

Sergio looked up from the canvas he was working. “But I’ve painted a dog’s ass,” he pouted. “And I’m telling you, it’s a nice ass! Almost as nice as mine!”

Iker tried so hard to ignore the last part. Now he really didn’t want to see whatever was on the canvas. Silently wishing Sergio wouldn’t turn the canvas—or worse, his ass—around to show off.

“So, what should we do? Paint two men in enormous fur coats riding an old car with a dog at the front?” Raúl suggested.

“I have painted the dog!” Sergio protested. “You just need to add two men in enormous fur coats riding an old car!”

Guti looked at the canvas. “I think I’ve painted the coats.”

“You mean your guinea pig?” Sergio looked at it, trying to imagine it as coats.

“It’s a lion,” Guti insisted.

“I thought they’re supposed to be coats.” Raúl corrected.

Iker just rolled his eyes. They’re hopeless. Then he realized they gotta go to the gallery now. He stood up and grabbed the canvas form Sergio’s hands without looking at what’s on it. “We gotta go, we must switch it now.”

Guti sneaked a look at the painting, “With that? Are you sure?”

 _No, he’s not._ Iker didn’t even want to know. But he had no choice and they really had no time. “We need to go, now!”

Raúl and Guti stood up right away. Guti had taken some of the painting tools. But Sergio only sat there with an expression on his face, holding his stomach. “Umm, guys…” he looked up, “I’m not feeling well. You guys go, I’ll stay in our room.”

“Okay! Take care Sergio!” Guti grabbed Raúl’s hand and ran to the parking lot right away, “Let’s go! We got some painting of two men in enormous fur coats riding an old car with a dog at the front to steal!”

Sergio actually didn’t look very well, Iker felt like he had to stay. “Do you want me to stay with you?”

“No, Iker, they don’t know which painting to switch, I’ll be fine.”

Iker looked concerned, “Do you want Guti or Raúl—”

“No, I’ll be fine. You’ll need them, and you gotta go now.”

 

 

When Iker reached the car, Guti snatched the canvas from him as he opened the car’s door and started the car up.

“Okay, so two men in enormous fur coats riding an old car with a dog at the front,” Guti painted some more on the canvas.

Raúl looked worried, he really didn’t want to look at the painting.

“Which one is the dog again?” Guti stretched his arms, putting the canvas away to take a look. “Where should we put the car?”

Iker gestured at them and Raúl dragged Guti inside the car, “It doesn’t really need to be two men in enormous fur coats riding an old car with a dog at the front, your lion would do just fine.”

 

 

“Location found.”

“Great, where is it?” David asked.

“Conversation moving.”

David raised an eyebrow. “What does it even mean?”

“I cannot identify the voices in conversation, but I can locate them, and now they’re moving. I’ll guide you, left.”

David ran as the straw gave him the direction, damn he didn’t even know whom he was chasing, and the location kept moving, so he decided to take the university bike.

 

“How do we switch them?” Guti whispered as they were hiding behind a wall. “It’s already on the wall!”

“But they haven’t sold it yet, and no one seems to notice,” Iker said.

Raúl assessed the situation. “Guti, you distract them, I’ll make the switch and Iker will take the painting out.”

“Okay,” Guti ran across the room.

Raúl walked to Iker’s painting, carrying the painting Guti and Sergio made. Iker walked near him to cover the painting. They’re waiting for Guti’s distraction, but then the fire alarm went off, and people started panicking and running. “Fire! Evacuate!”

Iker hesitated, “Is that—” he turned around to Raúl. But Raúl had already made the switch, and Iker had to catch the painting Raúl threw at him. Then they both ran to the door with everybody else.  Iker stopped as he saw people outside, “No, backdoor, backdoor!”

“Where’s Guti?” Raúl was scanning his surrounding as they headed to the backdoor. When they got out and reached the car, Guti had been waiting there. They got out of there by car as fast as they could.

 

“Fire?!” Raúl shouted at Guti, “Seriously?!”

“You said you want a distraction, I was just giving the best!” Guti shouted back. He really didn’t understand what upset Raúl and Iker so much, “It’s not like I burnt the whole gallery down!” He turned to the rearview mirror to look at Iker, “I appreciate art too, I won’t damage them.”

Raúl grabbed Guti’s arm and locked their eyes. “I was worried about you, for all I knew it could’ve been real fire and I couldn’t save you.”

Guti’s eyes softened at that, “Aw, you’re so sweet.” He kissed Raúl and smiled. He put the painting on the backseat and crawled over to Raúl. Raúl pulled him closer and they’re kissing again.

Iker rolled his eyes. He silently prayed the two wouldn’t start doing it in his car. His phone rang on the dashboard. It’s Mourinho. He answered it and put it on speaker.

“Casillas!” Mourinho’s voice shattered through the air.

“What?!” Iker snapped. The news must have reached Mourinho by now.

“I’ve anticipated to take care of the CCTV after our conversation, and I’ve taken care of it. I didn’t anticipate you’ll cause so much trouble. I implied you can take the painting, I didn’t say you can start a fire and burn the gallery down!”

“You’re exaggerating.” At least Iker knew that much, “The gallery is fine.”

“You’re right, they continued the exhibition.” There was a pause. “Congratulation,”

“Yeah, I know, the fire was a good distraction.”

Guti stopped what he’s doing with Raúl and said to Iker, keeping his voice low, “That was mine! You can’t take credit for it!”

“I’m doing you a favor, here,” Iker whispered back at Guti.

“Not the fire,” Mourinho corrected. “The painting, they like it.”

That caught Iker by surprise, “Um, thanks?”

“That’s mine too!” Guti whispered.

Iker ignored him, “Alright, thank you, but I’m driving now. I really shouldn’t be on phone,” with that, Mourinho hang up.

“Unbelievable,” Raúl commented. He had caught a glimpse at the painting. He had considered to just take their painting without replacing it.

Guti gave him an offended look, “That was a masterpiece! I’m an ingenious painter!”

Raúl rolled his eyes, “Crashing.” Just as the word left his mouth, the car crashed into something and stopped abruptly.

“Holy shit, Iker!” Guti cursed as he fell, squeezed between seats. “You don’t have to do everything he says!”

Iker ignored that. He was more afraid of what he had crashed. It was too fast, but he believed someone on a bike had come out of the alley, crashing the hood of his car as the bike rotating in 360 degrees. He got out of his car to see what had happened, he was grateful there was almost no other vehicles on the road, but then he recognized the person who’s moaning in pain, lying on the road in front of his car, “David?”

David winced in pain. Iker helped him got up and sat him down on the car’s hood. He looked at the scars and scratches on David’s arms. Iker took a bottle of water from his car and ripped a fabric off his shirt, then he started cleaning the wounds.

David was still trying to process what’s going on. He was chasing someone who were talking about the painting, about _stealing_ the painting, as Straw Girl told him at one point. She told him they’re moving in a car and he’s about to head it off as he cut the way through the alley. Then he was up in the air, his head and body banged with something and he fell to the ground, the road scratching his skin and he thought he’d broken his leg. Someone picked him up and now he’s face to face with Iker, his _boyfriend?_ David wasn’t sure, Iker just needed him to face his ex-boyfriend, right? Is Iker stealing the painting? Is Iker the one he should be catching all along? Despite their way of encounter David kinda like that guy, especially now that he seemed so caring and gentle.

Iker ran his thumb over David’s temple, “This’ gonna leave a bruise.” He saw blood on the corner of David’s lips and wiped it, David winced. Iker kissed the spot where the blood was. David tensed, that was when it occurred to Iker, maybe kissing someone else’s scars is not something that everyone does.

 _Is it what everyone here does?_ David thought. But Iker did kiss the pain away, David didn’t feel hurt anymore. _That was a good distraction._

“I’m sorry,” Iker said.

“Don’t be,” David said quickly.

“I hit you with a car.” Iker looked at him, “You can barely stand up, your head bumped, and your body is gonna be decorated with bruises, not to mention the scars.”

 _Oh that._ _He had worse_ , but instead, he gave a soft smile and said, “Well, I bumped into you.”

 

Inside the car, Raúl and Guti were watching. “Did he just kiss that guy?” Guti said after he recovered from the scene. “He’s not the touchiest person, you know.” He couldn’t really see it from this point of view, but he didn’t think he could be mistaken. “Unless you’re Sergio,” he added.

Raúl tried to get more look at the scene, “I’m not sure, isn’t that his thing? He’s been kissy all the time.”

“If you’re Sergio,” Guti emphasized. He couldn’t remember Iker being kissy to anyone else. Even that one moment with a girl was just one time.

 

Iker let out a small laugh, “Yeah, literally.” He turned to look at the bike lying on the ground. He decided to pick it in case other vehicles started to show up. “Where were you going, anyway? You can’t be bumping into me on purpose, are you?”

 _Actually, I kinda did, although without the part of harming myself on purpose._ David looked at his surroundings, there was a café across the road. “I wanted to go there,” he pointed.

Iker turned to look where David was pointing. There were many other cafés near their university and dormitory, but Iker did like that café, it wasn’t unreasonable to go there. Maybe David had heard about the café somewhere. “You’ve been there, before?”

“No,” _I was just making that up, so you wouldn’t think I stalked you._

“You know what?” Iker said. “I’m gonna make it up to you, let’s go grab cups of coffee, treats on me.” He gestured to the café, “They have some good deserts.”

David considered it. “Make it tea.”

 

“Whoa, Raúl! Is he asking that guy to go to the café?! He can’t leave us just for some bloke he bumped into!” Guti panicked. “Literally!”

“Maybe,” Raúl shrugged, “we don’t know for sure.”

“Stop him, Raúl! Stop him! We need to go now!”

“How?”

Guti took the painting and started writing on the back with a drawing pen, then desperately tried to get Iker to read it as he’s gesturing wildly for Iker to get back into the car.

 

Iker glanced at the window as he caught a wild movement inside his car. He saw Guti holding the painting, the back was on him, and there was something written on it, he squinted his eyes, he was pissed off that Guti wrote something on it, but _what_ Guti wrote drove him mad.

Raúl gave Guti a worried look, “Um, I don’t think what you wrote really helpful.”

Guti realized Raúl was right, and by the look on his face, Iker was just pissed off. Iker didn’t even make a move to go back into the car, just keep talking to the guy sitting on the car’s hood. Guti lost his patience and crawled to the front seat, opened the window and let his head out, “Hey, Iker! We need to go now!”

David turned around to see who’s shouting. “Iker, I think your friends wants you to go with them. I’ll go to the café by myself.”

Iker gave him a look, “And how would you get home?”

David gestured at the bike, it was broken, but he thought it can still be used.

“And how would you ride it?” Iker gestured at David’s legs. “No way, David. I’ll take you home.”

“Oh no, you won’t!” Guti shouted at Iker, totally mad for being ignored.

Iker tried to convince David to get into his car, and David refused with reasons from the café, to the bike, to Iker’s friend being disapproving. When David didn’t seem to notice, Guti gestured with his hands as he mouthed, “He cannot see the painting, and the hacking devices, and the dreadful accessories on the car, and the guns.”

“They’re fake!” Iker mouthed to Guti.

Guti mouthed back, “It’s still weird to carry fake guns around! Your car is filled with weird stuff! No one else allowed here!”

Iker hated it, but Guti got a point. David could stay in the front seat next to Iker. But Iker couldn’t risk him touching the wrong buttons on the dashboard that he wouldn’t be able to explain. “Alright, let them go, I’ll stay with you,” Iker said to David. He turned to Guti, “You go home, I’ll take him home later.” Iker didn’t even mention that David stayed in the same dormitory as them. Maybe Guti hadn’t seen David at the university. Maybe Guti didn’t even notice the university bike. Maybe David didn’t even think of Guti as a friend from university.

“Well then, get him off from there! He’s blocking my view!”

Iker carried David off the car’s hood, letting David put his arms around his shoulder for support as they walked to the café, Iker dragged the bike along with them. Guti finally drove the car and left them.

“You don’t have to do this,” David said as they got into the café.

“You don’t have to bump yourself into my car to get to me either,” Iker teased as he helped David to sit down. “I’ve told you I’d see you later.”

Honestly, David hadn’t thought Iker meant it when he said it, and David wasn’t looking forward to seeing Iker— _well, maybe he was—_ He hit Iker’s arms lightly, “I didn’t do it on purpose!” that wasn’t a complete lie.

They’re having a goodtime, the café _was_ good. David enjoyed their conversation, it felt nice. For once, he could feel like a normal person in his age, hanging out with a friend. He could relax and forgot all the things about his mission and the painting, even though Iker was supposed to be the one he’s suspecting right now.

They’re talking about their first encounter, “Alright, having a new boyfriend to show off to Cesc isn’t really the problem. It’s just, I lied to him about being with Sergio.”

“And then you lied to me,”

“No, I didn’t.”

“You didn’t need me to be your boyfriend, but you ask anyway.”

“Then I gotta be honest with you, maybe I want you to.” When David didn’t say anything, Iker shrugged, “I can’t really explain, but there’s something about you,” he looked at David, “It pulls me towards you, and I had to take the chance, I didn’t really expect you to say yes, but I couldn’t take no for an answer either.”

 _Well that explains something._ “Yeah, and you have that thing that forced me to say yes.”

“Look, if you—”

David quickly added, “And you’re such a good kisser.”

Iker thought he would have to call it off with David, but he decided he could just be flirty, “You want more?”

David didn’t think it’s the wisest thing to do, but he’s just playing along and acted like he’s considering it, “Maybe we have to give it a chance, yes. But first, a date?”

“What do you call this?”

“Tea time?”

Iker rolled his eyes, “Unbelievable,” he took a sip from his cup, “And by the way, this is coffee.”

“Well, mine is tea.”

 

 

Before it’s getting dark, they headed home. David sat on the bike as Iker guided it and walked. “Are you sure we’re gonna walk home? It’s pretty far.”

“Oh no, _I_ walk, all you do is just sitting there.”

“We can take the bus,” David offered.

Iker shook his head, “Nah, it’s good to go for a walk, besides, I got a company, maybe we can get to know each other better.”

“I have a feeling you’re doing this on purpose.”

“Hey, you’re the one who came out of nowhere crashing my car.”

“I’m still the victim.”

“Because I was the one in the car? Maybe I’m the victim of a fraud here!” Iker let out a small laugh. “I fall victim to your allure.”

 

\--

 

David was sitting by the window in his room, holding Straw Girl in his hand and was about to report his mission.

“I’m sorry, if you’re going to do your report, I must remind you not to wander and make this mission report a story about your boyfriend,” Straw Girl said before he could utter any word.

“I’m sorry, but when has it ever happened?”

The straw lit up and started playing back one of his reports.

_It’s hard to keep up with the daily life to continue my mission. The language barrier is becoming too much. I have no problem with a bit of daily Spanish, but turns out college life with a lot of people takes more than just daily Spanish._

_Lucky for me, someone is willing to teach me. It was an instant connection with him. We formed a bond. He teaches me as he’s tracing pictures and Spanish word on my skin, as we exchange lazy kisses in the morning. Touch becomes our primary communication, his touch has become more familiar than my mother tongue, it’s as if we don’t even need to speak to communicate._

“Okay, but that was one time.”

“Do I need to remind you of how unprofessional you are when you talk about your mission?” the straw responded before she replayed another report.

_I'm taking an art class, figure I can identify someone who might be able to fake a painting._

_A friend of mine—I've made friends, yes, Straw Girl, I have friends now—told me about the painting, turns out he was going to an exhibition where the painting was back then at that day. It has nothing to do with art theft or anything, at least as much as I want to believe._

_Learning so much about art, I never imagined myself as an object for painting, a muse to an artist. he would spend the day just tracing the tattoo on my skin, talking about art in fast Spanish as he did that. Sometimes I can’t keep up with the pace he talks, but I guess I always love it when he talks._

_He taught me to paint to, one day he painted on my skin, traces of ink among the tattoos on my skin. I considered to make it a permanent one._

_The other day I woke up by the rays of sunlight coming through my window, he was sitting by the window with canvas on his hip, painting me while I’m asleep, and I remember thinking the sun was painting the most beautiful masterpiece on his skin._

David couldn’t hear more of Straw Girl’s sarcastic comment, he was drifted back to those mornings after night of love making with Iker, the cuddling and morning kisses.

 _Iker opened his eyes as the early morning light hit his eyelids. He was welcomed by the scene of naked David opening the curtains, his arse was on the same level with Iker’s eyes. Iker smiled,_ what a beautiful morning, _he was about to close his eyes again, when David turned around and greeted him, “Morning, Iker.” David leaned and kissed him, “Rise and shine.”_

_Iker buried his face in the pillow, “Just a few more minutes.”_

_“A few more minutes?! Come on, Iker.” David dragged him out of the bed to the bathroom, and pushed him into the tub._

_Iker cursed loudly as cold water splashed and pierced his skin. “David!”_

_David laughed and joined him into the tub, “Cold bath is good for you, it’s a good way to start the day!”_

_“David, you put actual ice cubes in the tub!” Iker threw one of them at David._

_“That’s one way to make it real cold, besides—” he was cut off as Iker launched himself at him, bringing him down into the water. They fought to drown each other and competing who could hold his breath the longest. It became their morning ritual, to drive each other nuts by staying in bed all day or forcing the other to wake up. And ice? From splashing each other with cold water from bottles to drowning each other in ice cold water, it had been their thing._

_When they’re done, Iker ran outside to the balcony with only towel wrapped around his waist. He closed his eyes and turned his head up, savouring the heat of the sun on his skin. David pressed himself against his back, wrapping his arms around Iker. “Let me enjoy the heat of the sun, David. Your skin still cold and wet, stay away from me.”_

_David mumbled against the skin on his shoulder, “Never.”_

David was usually the one who made breakfast and brought it to bed. That morning however, was unexpected.

_David was still half asleep when Iker carried him from the bed outside. He didn’t protest though, but he certainly didn’t anticipate being thrown into the swimming pool with cold water. “Iker!” he yelled after managed to come up to the surface._

_Iker laughed and joined him into the swimming pool. David blinked as he saw a tray of breakfast for two floating between them. “Breakfast in pool?”_

_It was perfect, the sky was still dark, and the sun started peeking up from the horizon, the lights created a beautiful reflection of the sky on water, and Iker was right there in front of him in an infinite swimming pool on a rooftop with all his glory and a tray of delicious breakfast. David smiled and brought some berries to his mouth, “Never thought you could be so romantic.” After Iker sipped his drink, David couldn’t help but leaned forward and kissed him, tasting, “Hmm… you and your Cola Cao.”_

_Iker licked his lips before stepping back, “Stop it, you’re gonna make a mess in this pool.”_

_“Hey, this is your idea to have breakfast here.” David pouted, “At least we can still make a mess in bed when we have it in bed.”_

_“I thought you liked it romantic?”_

_“Yes I do,” David smiled, “Thank you, Iker.”_

 

Cristiano stopped at Sergio’s door, wondering if he really had to see Sergio and tell him. _Of course you have to_ , his mind told him. _Or you can just back away. No, you can’t._ He sighed and knocked the door, wishing Iker was not there, or worse, Raúl and Guti. The four of them didn’t have any boundary to get into each other’s room, and it’s so easy since they have two adjoining rooms.

Sergio opened the door and smiled wildly at Cris. “I know you miss me already.”

“Sergio…” Cris started, but Sergio had already been dragging him inside.

Sergio was jumping around to the kitchen. “What do you want to drink?” he opened the refrigerator and bent to see what’s inside, “Actually, we only have water, so—”

Cris stood behind him, grabbed his shoulder to get his attention. He just wanted to get this over already. “Sergio, I don’t want to drink.”

Sergio turned and looked up, grinning, “Eager, huh?”

“What?” realizing what Sergio meant, Cris gestured in frustration, “No! no!” But then Sergio started kissing him and Cris melted into it. _The last kiss,_ he reminded himself. He kissed deeper, wilder, grabbed Sergio’s ass and lifted him, Sergio smiled into the kiss.

Sergio quickly took off their clothes, throwing them carelessly, kicking the refrigerator’s door closed as he led the way to the couch. He pushed Cris on to the couch with his weight, grinding his hips against Chis’, as he kept kissing and moaned into Cris’ mouth.

 

 _Oh his eyes. Why these things happen to him._ Sergio and Cristiano was making out on the couch, naked. Sergio was straddling Cris and making all that wet sound. Iker had seen worse, but still— “Not on the couch!”

Sergio jumped off Cris, startled at Iker’s voice. “Iker!”

“Did I surprise you? After all this time, I can’t say the same to this scene.” Iker walked over to the kitchen counter. “I sit on the couch too, you know. Keep doing it in your bed.”

Sergio tried to find his pants. “You should knock! I hate that you keep walking on me!” He found Cris’ pants and underwear and throw them at Cris’ face, earning a protest and curses, but he couldn’t care less right now. “Shit! Where is it?!”

Iker opened the refrigerator to get some drink and stunned. “How did it even get here?!” He threw the underwear from the refrigerator across the room, hitting Sergio right on the face.

Sergio was so pissed off that he was disturbed, that he didn’t really think when he put that underwear on and started cursing loudly. “Freezing underwear! You’re trying to get my dick off! You’re killing it! Now I’m frigid.” He quickly took that underwear off and started jumping looking for heat.

Iker burst out some water and laughed. “Frozen. But yeah, frigid would do too.”

Cris laughed as he’s buttoning his shirt.

Iker walked over to them. “Look, I gotta go. So you can keep on doing whatever you were doing.” he headed to the door.

“Well, too late, isn’t it?! You’ve killed the mood!” Sergio shouted at him.

“Well, get it up, again!” Iker shouted back.

Sergio threw his shirt at Iker’s face, which Iker easily caught, laughing, which made Sergio even more pissed off. “Thanks to you, it’s rather hard now, isn’t it?”

Iker raised his eyebrows, “I thought that was the point.” Which earned a laugh from Cris.

“I got you a boyfriend! And you’re ruining my even-non-existent relationship!”

The thought about David made him smile, in fact, he was going to see David. “You got me a friend, Sergio. Thank you.” He was about to say something else, but then he shut his mouth. Iker had always thought that Cris and Sergio’s arrangement were unhealthy, but that’s none of his business.

Then Cris suddenly remembered why he’s even here. “About that,” he started, which get Iker and Sergio’s attention.

“About what? My non-existent relationship?” Sergio snapped. “Or Iker’s so-called friend?”

“This.” Cris gestured with his hands. “This thing between us. We can’t keep doing this.”

“I thought we’re having fun?” Sergio turned to him. Iker thought he was supposed to leave the two alone and opened the door. But then Sergio shouted, “And don’t you dare leave!”

“I didn’t say I wasn’t having fun,” Cris said. But realized as soon as he heard the words came out of his mouth that it was the wrong thing to say.

“So why?” Sergio started walking back and forth. “Was I not good enough?! Was there someone else?! Oh my god, there is, isn’t it? Is he better than me?!—”

“I don’t know, we’re not—”

“Or is it a she this time?” Sergio threw up his hands to his head in frustration, “Don’t answer that! Oh my, there is someone else!”

Now Cris was the one who’s angry, “Don’t be such a drama queen! We’re not even exclusive! You agreed we keep this only as friends-with-benefits thing! And now I’m seeing someone, I don’t wanna ruin this one!”

“But you always ruin your relationships!” Sergio accused. “Which is why we keep just being friends!”

Cris stood up and looked like he was about to give Sergio a punch on the face, but restrained himself and instead calmly said, “I like him. I want this one to last, and I can’t drag you into this.”

Sergio sat down on the couch. “I’m sorry, I just—” he sighed, “How do I get laid now?”

Iker, who was feeling uncomfortable at first, laughed at that.

Sergio snapped at him, “Shut up!” he threw his head back, “I should’ve taken David for myself.”

“Not a chance,” Iker said and hurriedly get out of their room, remembering that he was supposed to see David.

Cris picked up Sergio’s pants and threw it on his lap before sitting down next to him. “Put some clothes on, would you.”

Sergio turned his head to Cris and smirked, “Is there any chance you still can’t resist me?”

“Shut up,” Cris threw a pillow at Sergio’s face and stood up, heading for the door.

“Is he really that good?” Sergio mumbled into the pillow.

“Told you we haven’t. Guess I’m about to find out tonight,” Cris winked at him.

Sergio threw the pillow to Cris. “Fuck you!”

Cris dodged the pillow and ran out of the door, laughing.

 

He cancelled the date. Cristiano was upset about it and decided to just go to bed and he was about to sleep when someone rang his bell. He sighed and got up from the bed, wearing only his underwear. He opened his door and found no one. He leaned outside and turned his head left and right still nothing. He leaned further and stumbled, but before he fell, he grabbed the plant in the corridor to gain his balance. Then his door slammed shut. He froze. He didn’t bring his key card. _Damn._

For a moment he just stood there in the middle of the corridor, thinking how he could get in. Then one of the plants in the corridor moved. Somebody walked out from behind it, stalking towards him casually, locking him in the eyes. He stared back. Then the door clicked opened. The stalker, _yeah Cris was pretty sure the guy had been stalking not just in a sense of walking_ , had opened the door with a key card, a smirk spread across his face, an eyebrow raised suggestively. The stalker was turning back and about to leave, but Cris held his armed and pulled him close, “Where do you think you’re going?” Cris said before kissing him full on the mouth.

Gerard wrapped his arms around Cris’ waist and laughed as he pulled away from the kiss, “Didn’t think would get you naked in the corridor.”

“I thought you’ve planned this!” Cris accused. “Cancelling the date to get me in pajamas and then sneak in.”

“You’re not in pajamas,” Gerard stated.

Cris smirked and gave him a quick kiss, “Well, I’m not fully naked either.” He added, “yet.” Gerard’s lips turned into a whimsey smile, and Cris felt a finger sneaked in to his underwear. He pushed Gerard’s hands off him, “Not here!”

“You’re barely wearing anything already.”

Cris slapped Gerard’s face lightly, “Shut up. What are you doing here?”

“Somebody’s locked up and needed help.”

“Because of you,” Cris accused. “Ring the bell and hide in the bushes, really? How old are you?”

“Oh, come on, you like it.” Gerard turned to look at where he had been hiding. “And that’s not bushes.”

“You cancelled the date.” Cris waited for an explanation.

Gerard held up his hands up, “Alright, something embarrassing happened.”

“I swear, if you’re referring to this situation—”

“No,” Gerard assured. He paused. “I burnt our dinner.”

“So you cancelled the date?” Cris was incredulous.

Gerard seemed to consider it, “Yeah, I know, it was stupid. But I decided to come here, right?”

“Why?”

“Because I’m hungry.” When Cris gave him a flirtatious look he added, “for food.”

Cris blocked him from getting inside his room. “No way you’re getting here only for food.” Then he leaned towards Gerard and whispered in his ear, “How about we skip dinner? I can offer you something more delicious than that burnt dinner you cook.”

“Look, if you shut the door again there’s probably no one to help you again,” just as those word left Gerard’s mouth the wind blew from the inside of the room and shut the door. “Forget to close the window? Well, maybe you can get in through it,” Gerard waved the key card he’s holding between two fingers and walked pass Cris to leave.

Cris quickly grabbed the hand where the key card was. “Give me that.”

“Oh, I will give _it_ to you,” Gerard winked, clearly implying something else. “After we ordered pizza.” Gerard dropped the key card between his fingers to the floor and kicked it inside Cristiano’s room through the gap between the door and the floor.

“No!” Cris quickly get down to catch it before sliding inside his room, but it was too late.

“Who says no to pizza?”

“You idiot, now we’re locked out!”

“I’m not the one who’s only in my underwear, and that’s not my room.” When Cris stood up and looked like he was about to kill him, Gerard snatched another key card from his pocket, “Relax, it was the key card to my room. I switched it.” He chuckled, “I was just messing with you.”

“You’re still an idiot because you’re locked out from your room too.”

Gerard put the key card on the reader and paused.

Cris cried in frustration, “You’re not such an idiot to _not_ switch the card when you think you did, aren’t you?!”

A smile spread across Gerard’s face, as he put the card again and opened the door. “Told you just messing with you.”

Sometimes he wondered how on earth he still loved this guy, “I hate you,” Cris pushed pass him inside, but let Gerard inside too because no, he didn’t hate him, and yes, he was hungry too.

They spent the evening watching movie and eating pizza on the couch. Talking about nothings and laughing. It was nice. Cris had missed this Gerard. But there was still something that’s bothering him.  He wanted to ask it, but he’s not sure if he’s ready for the answer. “Gerard,” he called.

“Hmm?” Gerard turned to him.

 _Fuck, he’s not ready_. So instead he crawled to Gerard’s side of the couch and kissed him. Gerard kissed him back passionately. They get out of the couch and Gerard was practically pushing him when they’re making their way to the bed, and Cris would’ve fallen if it was not for Gerard’s hand on his back. Cris pulled away from the kiss to take Gerard’s shirt off. After he’d done Gerard’s back to kissing him. Cris was pushed into the bed, and Gerard peeled off his clothing in hurry. After getting rid every piece of clothing from Cris’ body Gerard leaned down to kiss him but Cris pushed his chest to stop him. “Gerard,”

Cris felt like he’s going to ruin this. But he couldn’t do this. The question’s still lingering on his mind. “Do you remember?” he asked, barely a whisper.

Gerard looked at him and Cris could saw the sadness in his eyes. “Cris, I—”

Cris was not ready to hear this, he thought he was, but when he saw those blue eyes filled with regret and sadness he knew he was not ready. So instead he put his finger on Gerard’s lips to shush him up. “Then pretend,” he laced his fingers on Gerard’s hair, “Pretend it was our first. Make love to me like it was the first time.”

He and Gerard had had done this before. Gerard was his first. His first love. His first time. But Gerard couldn’t say the same thing about him. It was one passionate night, filled with sweet nothings and promises. Cris remembered, he remembered everything, he had been waiting for the said promises, waited until it’s too long. He had been fucking around since, just because he could. He could have anyone in the world and the one person he wanted didn’t seem to want him back, so he lived his life as someone who could have anyone and anything in the world.

But Gerard was so broken back then, the crushing end of his on-and-off relationship with Cesc hit him hard for days. After all, Cesc had been Gerard’s best friend since forever, and when relationship came in the way, the breakup was not meant to be easy.

Gerard was drunk that night, if they hadn’t stay in the morning exchanging lazy kisses and having breakfast in bed, Cris would bet Gerard didn’t even remember even a gist of memory from that night. But surely Gerard didn’t remember what he said, maybe he never meant it in the first place. Maybe he should stop waiting—

Gerard stopped Cristiano’s train of thoughts by kissing him softly, wiping the tears on Cris’ face. Cris didn’t even realize he was crying. “I’m sorry,” Gerard whispered. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he said in every kiss he gave on Cris’ face, down to his neck, chest, stomach, then stopped to undo his own pants.

He started to open Cris up with his fingers. Cris entangled his leg on Gerard’s waist. Their lips locked in a kiss. “I’ll remember, I’ll make you remember,” Gerard said on Cris lips.

“Well, remembering hurts, you bastard,” Cris said but kept kissing Gerard, locking his fingers on Gerard’s hair.

Gerard drew his fingers out and started pushing the tip of his cock inside, making Cris groaned in pain. Gerard stopped in his way, “This hurts too?”

Cris nodded. When he felt Gerard was about to draw out he grab Gerard’s arm and pulled him down, pushing Gerard back inside with his legs, “Good hurt.” _Damn, it hurts so bad. He had forgotten how bottoming feels or how big Gerard is._

Gerard wiped the tears off Cris face with his thumb, pausing. “Cris, you’re alright?”

“Well, fuck! Just get in already!” he pushed Gerard inside completely and groaned.

That surprised Gerard. “Fuck, Cris.” They took a few breaths. “You feel..” he panted, “You feel good.”

Cris pulled Gerard down for a kiss, “Just you, just for you.”

That got Gerard moving, he started with a slow pace, then moved faster, groaning “Fuck, how could I forget this.”

Cris moaned as Gerard kept hitting his prostrate. “You forgot this then running like a coward pretending like nothing ever happened!” Cris cursed and bit Gerard’s neck. His mouth started uttering curses things about how mad he was, how sad he was, what a jerk Gerard was, how Gerard didn’t keep his promises, all the things he had repressed so deep.

Gerard didn’t say anything, only fucked him harder to turn those curses into moan. “What did I promise you, Cris?”

Cris’ not answering him, instead he buried his face on Gerard’s shoulder, hands scratching his back.

Gerard moved harder and faster to get the answer out, “What did I promise you, Cris?” then Gerard felt the wetness on his shoulder. “Cris, are you crying?” he only got a bite for that and he screamed. Gerard stop moving and tried to pull away, but Cris was clinging to him. He sat up with Cris still plastered on him, “Cris, look at me.”

Cris didn’t answer or look up, still clinging. So Gerard leaned forward, laying Cris down on his back and started moving slowly. “I never knew. I never knew we got a chance.”

“Well of course you didn’t, you never give one!” Cris’ voice was broken.

Gerard stopped. “I never knew I would ever got a chance with anyone, Cris. I thought you didn’t want me.”

“You’re projecting,” Cris mumbled at his shoulder.

Gerard tried to pull away from Cris’ embrace again. “You’re the one fucking around.”

“Because you never come back to me.”

Those word slapped Gerard in the face. He honestly remembered that night, the promises, he might not be sober when he said it, and there were some things he couldn’t kept. He had been avoiding Cris, since, because the enemies he had made cause harm to Cris, or of the possibility of Cris taking the other side hurt him so bad. When Cris started fucking around, he told himself Cris didn’t want him anyway, and it became easier for him to pretend like nothing ever happened and deny his feelings.

Gerard thrusted faster, hitting in all the right place. For a while they didn’t say anything to each other, just panting and moaning. He felt Cris tightened around him when he came, that was when Cris finally let go of him. Gerard pulled back, then pushed deeper and kissed the tears on Cris’ face as he released his load inside. “I remember,” he whispered, lips still pressing to Cris’ skin.


	3. Date on Fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The school show: Date on Fire, a flashback of a date gone wrong.

“Cescky!!” Gerard shouted as he saw his best friend at the cafeteria, totally forgot that he was holding a tray, opened his arms for a big hug, leaving Marc trying to catch the tray with one hand as his other hand balanced his own tray, the food was safe, the drink however, spilled all over the tray to the floor.

“Geri!!!” Cesc ran across the cafeteria and jumped into Gerard’s arms.

“When did you come back?” Gerard let go and grabbed Cesc by the shoulders.

“Yesterday,” Cesc excitedly dragged Gerard to an empty table, “Come on, you have to see him!”

“Who?” Gerard followed him and took a seat beside Cesc, completely oblivious to Marc trying hard to balance the two trays on his hands.

“The guy I met in England. The exchange from Dutch. He’s here now, I’ve told you about him.”

“Oh!” Gerard remembered Cesc’s summer love story he’s told over the phone. He didn’t think it would get so serious that the guy actually moved here with Cesc. Many did that, their university had so many branches around the world, sometimes after the exchange, the students just move from one branch to another, sometimes the teachers too. Then he finally noticed Marc as the poor guy successfully sat by his side with their lunch intact, looking so pissed off. “Oh, Marc. I’m so sorry.”

“Yeah, I won’t give you my drink though,” Marc said before he started eating.

Cesc just noticed Marc’s presence. “Hey Marc!”

“Hi, Cesc.”

Gerard just realized that his drink had spilled over, picked up the empty glass. “My drink!” then he looked up as heard someone laughing at him.

“Look at your face!” Sergio said as he’s still laughing so hard. But he made the one mistake of pointing his finger at Gerard’s face while he was holding his tray. So the tray slid to one said and the food slid off the tray along with his drink. Iker, who was standing by his side, caught the drink in reflex while maintaining his own train with the other hand, but there’s nothing he could do with the food.

Now it’s Gerard’s turn to laugh as he saw Sergio’s expression. “Carma, bitch!”

Marc just shook his head as Iker put the drink in front of Gerard and took a seat in front of Cesc, “Looks like you both have to share.”

“No!” Sergio and Gerard protested simultaneously.

“Well, you’ll only got one of those and none of us in this table is going to share with you,” Iker started eating, giving a look at Cesc and Marc that said not to share with Gerard or Sergio.

Gerard gave Cesc a pleading look, “Come on, Cesc. Share with me, please.”

Cesc gestured at the table “Do you see my lunch? It’s not even here yet, and no. Don’t you see the look in Iker’s eyes? It says he’s going to kill me if I share with you.”

“Come on, he can’t still get that much power over you.”

“He still got it over everyone,” Sergio, on the other hand, didn’t even try, besides, Marc had already enjoyed half of his meal. He took a seat in front of Gerard, silently wishing Gerard would share his food.

Gerard ignored Sergio, “Why didn’t you take your lunch anyway? Do you think it’s gonna come here by itself?”

“Actually, yes.” Cesc mocked at Gerard. “What do you think my boyfriend’s doing?” He turned and pointed at someone bringing two trays of lunch. “Oh, there he is!” He waved wildly “Robin! Here!”

“Oh my God, Cesc, how much older is he from you?” Gerard whispered as he saw Cesc’s new boyfriend.

“Shut up!” Cesc lowered his voice, “Some people grey earlier.”

“And you like it?” Gerard asked incredulously. “It makes him like a sugar daddy.” Then he realized Cesc had never actually told him it was another student. “Oh my God, Cesc. He’s not a new teacher here, is he?”

“No! he’s a new student here! Besides, his hair wasn’t gray when we first met. So, no, that’s not why I like him.” He added, “Doesn’t mean I don’t like it.”

“Did he..” Sergio whispered, “dye it?”

“Oh no! you’re not gonna dye yours, right?” Iker panicked.

“Why do you guys care so much?” Cesc glared at Gerard and Sergio. “And ew, it won’t suit you, Sergio.”

“Why do you guys hate my hair so much?” Sergio gave his best hurtful expression.

“Simple, it’s ugly.” Gerard said. “You’re ugly. Even a guy who greys his hair early looks better than you.”

Sergio was about to come up with a retort, but then Robin arrived with the food, and Sergio changed his attention. Iker wouldn’t ask the guy not to share, right? Gerard seemed like he was thinking the same thing, because his eyes lighted up at Robin—or rather, the sight of food, Sergio thought. But then Cesc glared at them, and somehow it stopped them, even though it was nothing like Iker’s glare.

Cesc introduced Robin to all of them. He and Robin excitedly told their story in England as an exchange and how the two of them met there. Sergio tried to get some fries out of Gerard’s plate, earning some slaps on the hand from Gerard. “And now you’re basically introducing him to your exes?” Sergio said as he’s chewing the fries he had successfully stolen from Gerard, making Iker and Gerard coughed, giving him a chance to steal more fries. Gerard didn’t try to stop him this time, and quickly grabbed his drink.

“So what?” Cesc seemed unaffected and Robin looked confused. “We had a double date after Iker and I broke up, and I got with Geri, and you with Iker.”

Iker cleared his throat. “About that, Sergio and I were never together.”

Gerard stopped drinking and cried in victory at Cesc, “I told you they’re faking it!” Cesc looked at Iker and Sergio.

“I wasn’t really over you yet, and when you asked me to go for a dinner I couldn’t refuse, and you said it would be a double date, so I took Sergio,” Iker explained. “I’m over him, now,” Iker added to Robin.

Robin turned to Gerard who was too busy saving his meal from Sergio’s sneaky hands, but somehow felt the gaze and said, “I’m over him too, okay? No need to be jealous. We stay best friends, though.” Gerard lifted his plate high and smirked at Sergio, “Besides, I got someone else, now, unlike this pathetic little shit over here who only got a fake date.”

That got Cesc’s attention, “Really? Who? Why didn’t you tell me? Marc is it you?”

Marc gave a disgusted look, “No!” He had finished his meal and stood up, “That’s it. I’ll leave you guys.”

“Marc no!” Gerard begged, “At least leave me some of your drink.”

“Oh, it’s empty,” Marc gave Gerard a look at his glass before leaving.

“So, who?” Sergio asked quietly.

Gerard looked at Sergio. He was expecting Sergio would pay more attention at his insult than the information that he was dating anyone. “Why do you care?” it was meant to be a sarcasm, but it came out as a genuine question.

Sergio looked away and shrugged, but then he retorted, “I don’t know, maybe you’re stealing someone else’s date like you did to me.”

“It was a fake date. You and Iker were not even together and I knew it!” Gerard said in satisfaction as he chewed his fries without Sergio trying to take them away from him. “I bet you’re only there for the free food!”

Sergio laughed at that, “I was, actually.”

“What do you mean stealing someone else’s date?” Cesc asked.

Sergio gave Cesc an incredulous look “You don’t remember?!” he pointed his finger at Gerard, “He was your date and he was all over my date!” he recalled how the it went,

 

 _“Can’t you imagine how awkward it’s going to be?! No! I’m not going to your pathetic double date with your ex-boyfriend!” Sergio jumped on to the couch, as if Iker would drag him if he refused to come. “Especially if_ he _’s gonna be there!” Sergio shivered in disgust._

 _“It’s not like I ask you to date_ him. _I ask you to be_ my _date.” Iker tried to reason, “I can’t ask Raúl, Guti would kill me.”_

_Guti, who seemed not to care until that point, pushed Sergio out of the couch, “In that case, you go, I can’t get my hands dirty.”_

_Raúl just shook his head. This whole situation was ridiculous. Iker was still drooling over Cesc and Cesc would go to England in a few weeks, so when Cesc asked him out for a double date, he said yes without hesitation. Sergio had pointed out why would Iker ever want to go to see his ex dating someone else, Iker argued, that way maybe moving on would be easier, which finally gave Sergio a support from Guti as Guti thought that was a stupid idea. Iker had been trying to get Sergio out with him all day long, playing cat and mouse, at one point he literally picked Sergio up and carried him out of the door, before Sergio started squealing and kicking._

_Iker pleaded, “Come on, besides, Cesc said he would pay, so—”_

_Sergio jumped out of the couch and ran towards the door in excitement, “Why didn’t you say that? I’d love to be your date!” he stuck out his tongue at Guti, “I’m going to a romantic dinner for free and you’re stuck here with Chinese food, ha!” earning himself a pillow thrown at his face._

_“Why didn’t you say that from the start?” Raúl whispered at Iker._

_“Yeah, I should’ve known.”_

_They were going to be late, thanks to the earlier drama, so Iker called Cesc and ask him to order the food for them. The food was fantastic, the date was horrible. Gerard had been teasing him since the very first second he arrived with Iker._

_“Iker! Over here!” Gerard waved at them. They got the table outside, in the garden, under the starry night sky. It was beautiful, but freezing. Sergio cursed inside. Cesc greeted Iker, his face beamed in happiness. Gerard stood up from where he was sitting next to Cesc and gave Iker a big hug, far too friendly. Sergio braced himself in case Gerard tried to do the same to him, but Gerard didn’t even seem to notice him, which somehow irritated Sergio._

_Maybe he wanted that hug after all, it was fucking cold. “It’s freezing.” He squeezed himself._

_“That’s why you bring a boyfriend to a dinner in a cold night,” Gerard hugged Cesc tightly, “to cuddle and make it warm.”_

_How could a hug make him so irritated? “Then why did you hug_ my _boyfriend, asshole.”_

_“You want me to hug you instead?” Gerard raised an eyebrow._

_Sergio stuck out his tongue and made a disgusted look, “I’d rather die freezing.”_

_“Don’t blame me if you actually did.” Gerard made a fake sympathetic look._

_“I don’t think I would, you’re burning me up.”_

_“You’re welcome,” Gerard smiled._

_Being a nice person that he was, Iker took off his jacket and put it on Sergio’s shoulder._

_“Oh, Iker, how nice of you,” Gerard commented and Sergio glared at him._

_Iker didn’t say anything at that, he looked at the food on the table and his lips curved into a smile, “Oh, you still remember my favorite.”_

_Cesc smiled in satisfaction, “You’re not the only one who remembers everything.”_

Oh no, these two are still in love, _Sergio thought._

_Iker then took a seat in front of Cesc, so Sergio was stuck to seat in front of Gerard. “Iker! Why you’re dating that horse?!” Gerard made an exaggerated facial expression. “No offense, but I hope there’s no hurt feeling here now that I got the cute one here,” he said as he put his arm around Cesc, pulling in, which made Cesc seemed to be embarrassed. Sergio felt sorry for him._

_“None taken,” Iker offered a genuine smile._

_Sergio, however, disagreed. “Actually, yes!” he grabbed a fork from the table and clanged it on his plate, earning a disapproval look from Iker. “He started it!” Sergio pointed the fork at Gerard. “He said I’m a horse!”_

_“So what? You do look like one,” Gerard said and Sergio was about to stab him with a fork._

_“Stop it, you two,” Iker lowered his voice at them then share a sympathetic smile with Cesc. Sergio imagined it was a code for ‘I felt sorry for our boyfriends’ childish behavior. We should’ve stayed together, instead of being stuck with these morons.’_

_They started eating and Sergio really enjoyed the food until Gerard took some from Sergio’s plate to his mouth. “Mmmh.. This is good.”_

_“What are you doing?!” Sergio snapped at Gerard._

_“My plate’s empty,” Gerard mumbled with his mouth full._

_“And_ I’m _supposed to care?!” Sergio tried to protect his plate from Gerard as he caught another attempt. Why didn’t that guy just take some from his boyfriend, or maybe feed each other like a romantic couple. “It’s not my fault you eat like a pig.”_

_Gerard was about to attack Sergio before Cesc held him back to stop him._

_“Sergio..” Iker started._

_“What? He called me horse, it’s only fair,” Sergio defended himself. “No, Iker, before you ask, I’m not sharing with him. Having dinner together is one thing. Sharing is crossing the boundary.”_

_“Gerard, you can take mine,” Iker offered._

_Sergio couldn’t believe it, why would Iker offer his own food to_ him, _Gerard, out of all people. Having a double date with your ex-boyfriend was pretty weird, sharing your dinner with his new boyfriend took weird to a whole new level. It’s not like Gerard stole Cesc away from Iker, but Sergio still thought it didn’t make sense._

_Just to make the whole situation more awkward, Gerard crossed the table and ate from Iker’s spoon while Iker was lifting it to his own mouth. Gerard’s face was only a few inches from Iker’s and Sergio felt, well, jealous, which is ridiculous since he’s not even dating Iker for real. He couldn’t believe that he’s being poached even in a fake date. He wondered how Cesc could stay calm._

_Iker blinked as he’s still trying to process the whole situation. Gerard, that provoker, licked his lips that were dangerously close to Iker’s and smiled, “Yeah, I think I’m good,” before leaning back to his seat._

_Iker was too stunned to say anything and Cesc didn’t even react while Sergio was trying his best not to explode. But it seemed like Gerard was trying to push his button, because when Iker sipped his drink, Gerard held Iker’s hand, brought his own straw to Iker’s glass, and sipped, eyes looking at Iker’s, face even closer than the previous event, and he’s making the flirtiest face and the most disgusting sound._

_“Stop flirting with my date,” Sergio growled._

_Gerard turned his head to Sergio, still sipping Iker’s drink, trying to look as innocent as possible. He sat back to his chair. “Your date? Aren’t you dating someone else, Sergio?”_

_Sergio thought about it for a moment. Was it possible that Gerard acting jerk because he knew he’s not actually dating Iker? “You mean Fernando? We’re not together anymore.” Then the fact hit him, “You know about my love life?”_

_“Love life?” Gerard burst out laughing, “As if you have one!”_

_Sergio pouted. Cesc nudged Gerard. “Geri, stop teasing him.”_

“You’re dating this guy before me?” Robin asked Cesc, referring to Gerard.

Before Cesc could say anything, or Gerard utter any disapproval, Sergio chimed in, “I know, right? I wonder why he didn’t get back with Iker right away that night!” which earned him a kick from Iker under the table. “Oh yeah, Gerard stole Iker too fast.”

“Now that you mentioned,” Cesc said, “The way I see it, it’s you and Gerard were all over each other.” Iker smiled a little at that, he couldn’t agree more.

Sergio grunted. “Ew, we were not.” Then he saw that Gerard was sipping his drink. “Give it back to me, I’m thirsty and we’ve not even reached the best part,” he took the drink from Gerard’s hand and sipped some, only to find out it was the last sip. He glared at Gerard, but then continued, “The best part was when he got the wrong Fernando,”

 

_They had finished their dinner and were waiting for a bill. Cesc, Iker, and Gerard were talking with each other. They all looked happy and Sergio was being sulky because he couldn’t get into the conversation without Gerard getting in his hair. Iker had been trying to console him to no avail and Sergio couldn’t blame him for that._

_When Cesc excused himself to the toilet and stood up, revealing a scene behind him, Sergio saw Fernando and he quickly grabbed Iker’s arm, “Nando is here. Iker, hide me.”_

_Iker raised an eyebrow, “Why would I do that?”_

_“You’re my boyfriend! You’re supposed to be possessive or protective or something.” Sergio put his head on Iker’s shoulder and hugged him, hiding his face. Iker hugged him back. Maybe it’s time they played more convincing, especially when Gerard seemed to know that they’re just pretending. The truth was, Sergio felt about Fernando the same way Iker felt about Cesc. Sergio’s just not over him yet, and there he was with his girl, seeing them together hurt him, and he just felt like he needed to prove something, that he can live with or without Fernando, but he’s stuck in this ridiculous fake date. But then Fernando walked out of his sight and he felt relieved._

_Sergio sneaked a peek and saw that Gerard was scanning the restaurant. Sergio was suspicious that he was looking for Fernando, but why would he? He’s certainly not going to play the possessive new boyfriend, right?_

_“Fernando!” Gerard waved “Hey! Over here!”. Of course, Sergio thought. Gerard was just messing with him. He buried his head deeper on Iker’s neck. The whole situation was embarrassing, and Fernando would figure in an instant that he’s not really with Iker and was pathetically being a fake boyfriend for Iker. He hugged Iker tighter, wishing to just disappear. He noticed that Gerard had stood up and walked passed him, probably to Fernando. He heard all the friendly talk and hugs and pats then he realized, it’s not Nando’s voice. “Alright, I’ll see you later, then,” he heard Gerard said. He looked up behind him and found Gerard was hugging Fernando Llorente tightly. He couldn’t hold back his laugh and burst out._

 “He was the first Fernando I saw and I didn’t think much,” Gerard argued, trying to stop Sergio’s laugh and a few giggles from the others.

Sergio rolled his eyes, “As if you ever think at all.”

“Anyway, that’s not the best part,” Gerard smirked.

 

_Why was Sergio laughing at him? Fernando was about to turn around to see who’s laughing, but Gerard squeezed him tighter. He looked at Sergio, who was grinning in victory, then it hit him. He pulled away and grabbed Fernando by the shoulder, trying as normal as possible to manage Fernando to leave without seeing Sergio’s victorious smile._

_Then he saw the waiter was coming with the bill. He quickly grabbed Iker’s hand and dragged him out befor Iker could protest. “Iker, come with me!”_

_Sergio shouted behind him, “Gerard! What are you doing?!” But then the waiter had arrived at their table and stopped Sergio from following them._

_Gerard dragged Iker to his car, and drove. He only meant to leave Sergio with the bill. But he had also completely forgotten about Cesc._

“Forgotten, huh?” Robin blinked.

“Which is why we broke up,” Cesc finished, though he wasn’t looking serious when he said it.

“That’s not why we broke up,” Gerard disagreed. “We decided we’re better off as friends anyway.”

 “Because no one takes someone else’s date home and leaves their own boyfriend to pay the bills and go home by feet!” Sergio retorted. “And Iker had to sneak out the next day to get his car. Oh, the parking cost. You’re not a good boyfriend, Gerard. You even recorded the whole ride home talking about how fun it was to ruin my date, until you finally realized you’d left your boyfriend at the restaurant! You were like a drunk car thieve.”

“It was my car,” Gerard protested.

“Which is exactly the problem! There were only your and Iker’s cars, and you kidnapped Iker, so Cesc and I were left with nothing but our feet! You didn’t even come back, you just kept broadcasting on periscope!”

“ _Geri_ scope,” Gerard corrected which earned an eyeroll from Sergio. “I was too ‘drunk’ to drive back. I can’t risk hurting him”

“So thoughtful,” Cesc mumbled between his meal.

“So you just keep broadcasting?” Robin asked Gerard in disbelief, “Cesc what were you thinking.”

“Oh yeah, Gerard and Iker’s periscope! we got it on our show, the rating was high! It was so funny! Especially when he realized he had forgotten about Cesc!” Thomas suddenly sat next to Iker, with Lukas and Bastian taking their place, recording the whole table with their cameras. “Gerard’s dates are the best, one of them inspired the name of our show,” Thomas gestured dramatically, “ _Date on Fire_.”

Iker turned his head to Thomas. “Why do you always sneak up out of nowhere?”

“That’s my thing, I’m broadcasting everything all the time,” Thomas said proudly.

“Wait, now I remember about the periscope,” Sergio continued, not caring if they were being recorded for the whole university to see. “Iker, you actually seemed to have fun.”

Gerard giggled. “Oh, he did.”

“I did, actually.” Iker shrugged, “Besides, it was a fun idea to leave you there.”

“I can’t believe you.” Sergio glared at Iker. “This is why we never go on a real date!”

“Like he wants to,” Gerard rolled his eyes. “Like anyone wants to.”

“I’m pretty sure no one wants to date a jerk who left his boyfriend on a dinner to pay as he’s pouching around either,” Sergio snapped.

Gerard smirked, “Oh, someone does, actually.” He looked behind Sergio and waved, “Hey, I’m here!” His smile was so wide as he proudly said, “That, everyone, is my boyfriend.”

Sergio turned around as he noticed how stunned were the others. He bug-eyed as soon as he saw who it was standing behind him. “HIM?! REALLY?!” he gestured at Gerard.

“I know, he got a really good taste, right?” Gerard said smugly.

Cristiano were standing rather uncomfortably in front of him, but Sergio couldn’t care less. “Cris, when you asked me to stop sleeping with you because you finally wanted it last with someone I thought that someone was supposed to be a nice person.”

“I can be nice!” Gerard snapped.

“Whoa! This is so great! Keep recording, guys! Sergio, how could you not know? Everybody here knows. The picture was a trending topic last night, #RonaldoFaster, still is.” Thomas mumbled with his mouth full of marshmallows.

Which got Cesc all excited, “Where did you got all those marshmallows?” then he looked up to see Xabi standing behind Thomas, with an empty marshmallow package on his hand.

Xabi offered an apology, “Sorry, I can’t keep him quiet anymore, I’ve run out of marshmallows.” Actually, there were some left, fell out of Thomas’ mouth on to the table, some actually fell on the floor, which then Xabi picked up and put on the table, but he couldn’t do that—gagging someone with unhygienic marshmallows—not even to Thomas, that guy would swallow the whole thing.

For a while, the table was silent, all eyes were on Thomas, even Cristiano stopped himself from running away from the difficult situation he was in to stare at Thomas who was trying to swallow all the marshmallows Xabi used to gag him. Robin had to stop Cesc from reaching across the table to take the fallen marshmallow. Sergio was the first to find words, “#RonaldoFaster?”

Then Gerard got back to what Sergio was saying, not caring the fact that the cameras were still recording them, broadcasting live, “Wait, what? You’re sleeping with him?”

“Haha! Yes!!” Sergio cried in victory at Gerard.

“I’m not asking you.” Then Gerard teased, “Oh, but he left you for me, didn’t he?”

Sergio reached behind him to grab Cristiano’s hand, “Sit here. You got something to explain,”

Cristiano sat down next to him but refused to explain anything, “I’ve already explained to you that day, I’ve even explained to him too.”

“But you didn’t say anything that it was him!” Sergio felt betrayed. His friend left him for his worst enemy.

“Not like it’s any of your business,” Cristiano defended himself.

“Tell him, Cris,” Gerard continued to provoke Sergio, “Tell him how good I was that night.”

That worked, because Sergio didn’t even think when he grabbed Iker’s drink and splashed it on Gerard’s face, dampened his shirt.

Gerard looked at some left marshmallows on the table, he leaned across and took them, chewed them in his mouth as he’s glaring at Sergio.

Sergio didn’t see what was coming until Gerard leaned towards him and spat the marshmallows on his hair, making it all messy and sticky “What the fuck, Gerard!! What I did wasn’t even that bad!”

“Those things are actually quite delicious,” Gerard licked his lips and fingers. “Your hair’s ugly already, I’ve just given it a helping hand.”

The whole table was in chaos. Other people on the cafeteria stood around them, wanting to see what happen but not wanting to get involved. Sergio and Gerard were attacking each other, Iker was shouting at them to stop. Cristiano was holding Sergio back from launching himself at Gerard, whom Cesc was trying so hard to pull back, even after Robin helped him out of worry. Xabi was trying hard to get his crew stop recording and step away from the chaos. He knew well it was inappropriate to intrude someone else’s business, but Thomas were making things worse by narrating the whole situation loudly, “Sergio and Gerard are at each other’s neck. The leftover food is flying! French fries! Meat! Lettuce going down! Can’t even travel that far! Cristiano is having a hard time, Cesc and the new guy are winning at the other side,”

“The new guy?” Lukas commented behind the camera as he’s trying to keep an ideal distance to record the whole thing without getting himself killed as now Iker’s shouting at them to stop recording.

“I forgot asking his name!” Thomas walked over to Robin, “Hey, what’s your name?”

“Um, Robin?” he said. But it distracted him that he lost his grip on Gerard’s arm which the hit him hard on the chin.

Gerard turned around, “Oh, I’m so sorry.”

Sergio saw the opportunity and shoved Gerard backward until the guy stumbled on his feet, bringing Cesc down with him.

“And the winner is Sergio!!!” Thomas continued as Xabi picked him up over the shoulder. Xabi was about to get out of the mess when he was faced to face with their university counsellor, Jose Mourinho.

“What the hell is going on here?!” Mourinho’s voice jarring through the whole cafeteria, making everyone still.

 

 

They were all grounded. Not in the detention room, since Mourinho had figured out what they had done to the detention room, all decorated as it was a playground, so they had to clean the cafeteria, gaining some protests since basically, it’s only Gerard and Sergio who made the mess. Mourinho agreed that it should be Gerard and Sergio who clean up their table but argued that the cafeteria was dirty anyway, and he could use some hands to clean it up.

After done with their lunch debris, Gerard and Sergio had the responsibility to clean the floor together, Iker’s order, in hope they would be more mature and get along. Sergio wondered why would Iker think there were more chances of Gerard being mature than chances of them getting along. Gerard didn’t even dismiss that, only added that Sergio had an equal chance as him of being mature.

They were using the vacuum cleaner. Gerard was standing behind Sergio who was singing and dancing around as he’s cleaning the floor, his hair bouncing up and down. Gerard couldn’t resist. He had seen it on a video before, and he wondered if it really worked. He removed the floor tool from the telescopic wand, and put on a rubber band on it, and hovered it to Sergio’s hair.

Sergio cried in surprise as Gerard made a pony tail on his hair. He turned around and switched the reverse button on his vacuum cleaner, blowing Gerard’s hair. But Gerard was just laughing and did the same to him. They stopped. Gerard was still laughing, eyes gleamed in happiness, hair dishevelled, which looked quite nice on him, Sergio thought, then he inwardly cursed himself for thinking as such.

Gerard slowly stopped laughing. He looked at Sergio, thanks to his treatment, Sergio’s hair was pulled back and the front was now stood up in a mess. “It’s as if you cut your hair,” he paused. “It suits you.”

Sergio avoided Gerard’s eyes. Why was Gerard looking at him like that, like—he stopped his train of thought right away, but it just wondered to _well it suits you too,_ so he just ran his fingers through his hair and pulled off the pony tail, “Shut up.”

“What are you guys doing?! Flirting with each other?!” Guardiola suddenly came out of nowhere.

“We’ll get back to work,” Gerard said as he’s back to cleaning the floor, followed by Sergio.

“Who asked you to clean this cafeteria?” Guardiola still looked angry

“Umm.. Mou?” Sergio said quietly. And there was the disaster he dreaded. Guardiola started shouting at the rest of them who were grounded. They’re all gathered in the middle of the cafeteria.

“What was the point of cleaning up the cafeteria? Shouldn’t you all be studying right now?!”

“I don’t know,” Cesc mumbled, “Ask Mourinho.”

But Guardiola heard that. “Well, I’m not asking Mourinho! Is Mourinho here?! No!” he snapped at Cesc, which was very unusual, and now Cesc looked like a sorry puppy.

Gerard stepped forward. “It should only be me who cleans up the cafeteria, the others didn’t make a mess in the cafeteria.”

“You’re saying you’re the only one who should be grounded?” Guardiola gave him a deadly stare.

“And me,” Sergio spoke up.

“Oh you too? Would everyone else step forward now and say they too should be grounded?”

Nobody stepped forward.

Guardiola continued his rant, “Why cleaning the cafeteria? Look at what you do with the vacuum cleaner!” he gestured to the mess Gerard and Sergio made earlier. “Why not the detention room?!”

“Oh, Mou said we’ve turned it into a playground.” Of course Thomas couldn’t keep his mouth shut.

Guardiola gave Thomas a look. “You know what? I’m gonna show Mourinho how wrong the decision he made, he only made this cafeteria dirtier with you guys ‘cleaning’ it up.” He clapped his hands and pointed outside to the field in the middle of their university, “Ten laps!”

Gerard and Sergio quickly ran outside, anything’s better than hearing Guardiola put his anger towards Mourinho at them. The two bickering and ranting about each other like an old married couple, there were rumors they’re basically just that. Guardiola blew his whistle loudly, “All of you!”

So there all of them running around the pitch with Guardiola shouting at them to go faster. “Müller! You’re running the wrong way!” he shouted at Thomas. “Schweinsteiger! Stop running backwards and recording everyone with your camera!” he ordered Bastian. “Alonso! You’re not doing any lap! Don’t just run forward and backward! I’m the one in charge here now, not Mourinho!” he shouted at Xabi.

Mourinho went to the cafeteria to check the boys, only to find it was deserted. He looked outside and saw the boys were running laps, with Guardiola ordering around. He gritted his teeth. He walked there, shouting at Guardiola, “Pep! What the fuck are you doing?!”

Guardiola turned to him, “Oh, you’re here. See how I’m doing better? I’m making them stronger, faster, and more disciplined, while you’re only letting them fool around.”

“I’m better than you at that! Wanna bet?”

“Alright then, I bet on Piqué.” Guardiola accepted. He shouted at Gerard, “Piqué! Run faster! Don’t carry Fabregas like that! He has to do the laps by himself!”

“I’ll bet on Ronaldo.” Mourinho shouted at Cristiano, “Ronaldo, you’re fine! Stop acting and run!”

Guardiola ran towards Gerard, then alongside him, “Come on, Gerard! Faster! Faster! Even this old man can run faster than you! Come on! Beat that boy with too much hair gel and the old white-haired man over there!” Sergio who was running at Gerard’s side heard that and laughed so hard.

Meanwhile Mourinho had been running at Cristiano’s side, “Come on, Cris! Who’s the man? Who’s the man?!”

“I’m the man!”

“Who’s the man?!”

“I’m the man!”

“When some baldy talks trash about you, what do you do?”

“Calm them down!”

“So what are you waiting for? Run faster!” Mourinho encouraged him. Cris ran faster and was about overtake Gerard, but Sergio was running in his way. “Stay in the back, Ramos!” Mourinho shouted at Sergio. “Get out of my way of winning this!”

“What?!” Sergio turned around and ran backward. “It’s not my fault I’m better than him, even in the back I’m still far ahead than him, and you’re not betting on me!”

“Fuck off,” Cris pushed pass him.

Sergio was pissed off. He ran inside the pitch, earning a protest from Guardiola, but he couldn’t care less. “Come on, Gerard! You got longer legs! Get those nice legs of yours to use!” He ran alongside Gerard, getting Guardiola to step away.

“Nice legs?” Guardiola repeated in disbelief.

Gerard and Cristiano were running after each other. Gerard accidentally crashed Cris at the side, and Cris fell on the ground. Sergio got all excited, “Yes, Gerard! He’s down! Faster, faster!”

Mourinho blew his whistle, “Gerard! You start the lap all over again!”

“No, you can’t do that!” Guardiola protested.

“He knocked him down! That’s unfair!” Mourinho defended Cris.

“It was nothing!” Sergio, Gerard, and Guardiola cried in unison.

Thomas, who finally caught up with them, still jogging slowly, calmly interrupted, “Restart the lap, Gerard, you’re cheating.”

Cesc, who was also jogging gave Gerard a disapproving look, “You knocked him down?”

“No, I didn’t!” Gerard desperately defended himself. He sighed and took his place to run in the other direction to restart the lap. Cris was standing near him and Gerard could see he’s holding back a laugh. “It was nothing! It was nothing and you know it!”

Cris, couldn’t hold it back anymore, covered his mouth so no one can see it, Gerard’s still seeing it, though. “Calm down, Gerard, calm down,” he gestured to Gerard. “Just redo the lap, Ger. Just stay calm as I do,” he started to jog slowly, grinning satisfyingly at his absolute win.

 

 

Sergio didn’t even realize what he was about to do until he knocked David’s door, which itself was probably a bad idea, since Iker had left their room to go wherever-it-was—Sergio didn’t really pay attention— _and_ to David’s, meaning Iker probably wouldn’t like it if he barged in. David opened the door, revealing that Iker hadn’t arrived yet and Sergio didn’t hesitate, “David, I need your help.”

David stepped back and let him in, “What can I help?”

Sergio gestured to the box on his hands. It was filled with hair styling tools. “I need some help with my hair.” He had seen some of David’s hair experiment, and that guy was quite good.

David gave him a look, “You want to play hair styling with me.”

“Not playing!” Sergio let out an exasperated sigh. He walked over to the vanity and sat down. “Please, I need to cut it.”

David couldn’t believe what he just heard. He thought Sergio just wanted to change the style, not exactly cutting it. “You want to cut it?”

“Can we just get started already?” Sergio pleaded.

David laughed at him, “What finally got into you?” He walked over to Sergio and started fiddling the box. “Oh, Iker would love this.”

“Iker and—” Sergio stopped himself from mumbling.

But David didn’t miss that, “Iker and who?”

“You!” Sergio grinned at the mirror.

David met his gaze in the mirror. “Sergio..” he really wanted to know who on earth could make Sergio want to cut his hair.

Sergio groaned, “Alright, fine! I’ll tell you,” David was waiting for him to continue, he locked his eyes with David’s in the mirror, adding, “After we’re done with my hair.”

 

Instead of just cutting Sergio’s hair and get it done, they were playing around for about two hours, not just with Sergio’s hair, but with David’s too. They braided each other’s hair, and taking pictures of themselves, laughing and rolling on the bed when Iker came in.

“Oh my God, how can I unsee it.” Iker turned around from the bed, heading back to the door.

David sat up on the bed, “Iker, Iker! Wait!” but he’s still laughing that it was just hard for Iker to take him seriously and waited. He got out of the bed and grabbed Iker’s hand, “Wait, please.”

Iker braced himself and turned to look at David. “Your hair is horrible, both of yours.”

Sergio, who was still laying on the bed, laughed harder. “Oh, finally he hates your hair too!”

David snapped at Sergio, “Shut up! I still look much better than you.”

Sergio raised his eyebrows, “Not so much now.”

Iker let go of his hand from David’s. “I need to go and when I come back your hair has better been back to normal, alright?”

“Oh, it would be even better.” Sergio said smugly, “not just normal, but exceptional, extraordinary.”

“But you just came here, Iker,” David caught up as Iker opened the door.

“To tell you that I got an emergency, and I’ll come back soon,” Iker stopped to give David a light kiss, “It’s not because of the hair, believe me.” Then he walked out.

David was a bit suspicious of the mention of emergency and knew that he probably should investigate it. But Iker would come back, it could wait. Besides, he was having fun here, so he closed the door and walked back to Sergio who was fiddling the box in the bed. “Alright, Sergio, where were we?”

 

 

When Iker finally come back and saw the two fooling around on the floor like children, he had to stop himself from turning around and walking out the door _because_ of the hair. The two, however, noticed him before he could walk away, “Iker!” David jumped up and hugged him.

“You bleach it!” Iker said in disbelief.

David raised his eyebrows. “I’ve bleached it before. It was bleached the first time we met.”

“Your hair, not his!” Iker pointed at Sergio who was lying on the floor, looking at the two of them upside down.

“Oh, we decided to wait for you!” David announced in excitement.

Iker was horrified. “Oh, no! I’m not going to change my hair!” he shook his hair. “My hair looks perfectly fine, thank you very much.”

Sergio rolled over. “Your hair looks boring.”

“At least it’s not hideous!” Iker snapped. “or inexpedient,” he added. “or derivative,” he assessed. “or bleached,” he said a matter of fact. “You call it boring, in my words, it looks perfectly normal, thank you very much.”

Sergio was glaring at Iker, who attack back with equally—even more deathly stare. David had to interfere, “We’re not going to do anything to your hair, Iker.” He explained, “We waited for you, because we want your opinion as we’re styling it, this is not the final result, I promise. We were just fooling around for a while, as we’re waiting for you.” _Which reminds me, what kind of emergency that made you go without a real explanation?_ But David stopped himself from saying his thought out loud and instead, ran his finger through Iker’s hair and smiled, “and I love your hair just the way it is.”

Sergio rolled his eyes at that. But got up and headed too the vanity.

David followed Sergio and said to Iker, “Oh and the good news is, we’re about to cut Sergio’s hair.”

Iker laughed, “Sese, what finally got into you?!” Then he headed to the vanity in victory, “Finally! I’ve been waiting for this for years!”

Sergio pouted, “You said it looked cute when I was a kid.”

“Those years didn’t count, I hadn’t met you yet. I only saw the pictures.”

 

 

David cut his and Sergio’s hair. It looked normal and Iker liked it, only, “I still don’t like it that you bleach it, Sergio. You got a nice coloured hair.”

“Thank you,” Sergio was satisfied with the compliment.

 “It’s not a compliment. I said, I don’t like it that you bleach it.” Iker turned to David. “Why did you bleach it if you’re going to cut it?”

“Relax, it’s not permanent.” David continued styling his own hair.

“Still doesn’t explain _why_ you bleach it _before_ cutting it.” Iker ran his fingers through Sergio’s hair, he was sort of disappointed that they couldn’t run the same length as they used to, “I gotta admit, maybe I would miss your long hair.”

“Already?”

“I said _maybe_ I _would,_ ” Iker corrected. “Alright, let’s get rid of this colour.”

Sergio took his camera. “After we take pictures of this!”

 

 

They did, then Sergio and David had their natural hair colour back. Sergio ran through pages of the magazine he brought. “Oh, David! Why don’t we try this one?!”

Iker looked at the style Sergio referred to, “Oh, no, absolutely not.”

David took a look, “We can’t.”

“You’re no fun,” Sergio sulked.

“No, we really can’t.” David explained, “Your hair needs to be longer, then we swept it back.”

“And shaved the sides?” Iker shuddered.

“At least it’s not the one which we have to shave the middle.” If it was, David wouldn’t like it either.

“David, this is all your fault. You’ve corrupted my boy!”

“Your boy?!” David knew it’s ridiculous, but he couldn’t help feeling a bit jealous. _Since when did he become so possessive of Iker?_ “And in my defense, he’s been corrupted since day one I met him. He took my cupcake!” Alright, now he went beyond ridiculous.

Sergio just rolled his eyes at that, “Will you ever let that one go?”

Iker continued to argue, “He used to be an innocent boy with simple haircut, and now he asks you for a fuckboy haircut!”

David contended, “I would say a simple boy with innocent haircut.”

At this point Sergio felt like a child watching his parents bickering, he had deal more than enough times with Raúl and Guti and now there’re Iker and David.

Then Iker caught a glimpse of another style near the one they’re talking about. He took a real look at it, “This one looks better.”

“Oh yeah, I also want that one!” Sergio agreed.

“That one was this one,” David referred to the previous one. “After the sides growing back.”

“Alright you try that later.” Sergio beamed hearing that from Iker, but then the image of Sergio with such hair style made him changed his mind, “Actually, can’t you just make that one without actually made _that_ one first?”

“Well, I can, but—”

Sergio cut David off and finished it with his own words, “where’s the fun in that?” he ignored Iker’s look. “I’m gonna try that one first after my hair grows longer.”


	4. The Game

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's getting started...

“You can’t keep your mouth shut, can’t you, Pique?!” Lucho smashed his desk.

“What?” Gerard sounded nonchalantly. He had been called up by his team manager. He had insisted that he wouldn’t go after the legacy, _let Los Blancos have it if they want it so bad_. But now it seemed like Los Blancos was not the only one they have to worry about, or maybe there’s going to be some alliance. The teams competing in The D.I.V.E Game are nothing, he’d already had so many enemies outside the university.

“Now that the whole university seemed to know about the legacy and going after the painting, you better go after it!”

“What if I don’t want to?”

“Then you face the consequences.”

As much as Gerard hated it. He would be doomed if the legacy fell to the wrong hand. This year’s game’s going to be one hell of a competition, since they’re all after the same thing.

\--

 

It’s coming. The big game. Now it’s time to call up the team and execute.

 

“So who are with us this year?” Guti asked as the four of them were having breakfast together. “We can’t bring everyone with us, can we? The accommodation wouldn’t cover all of us, and some people have to stay here.”

 Raúl looked at the list Sergio had given him. Sergio was so excited to convince the other three to recruit the ones on the list he had made. Sergio had been trying so hard to convince the three of them that they can invite Fernando, but everyone suspected there’s another motive.

\--

_Why was it so hard to convince them? it’s not like there was still hope for him and Fernando anyway_. _Fuck it, he’s going to invite Fernando anyway._ They were at the gym, running on the treadmills. As Sergio explained about the great scheme of the big game, Fernando’s eyes were drawn somewhere else. It’s not like Fernando wasn’t listening, but clearly his attention for Sergio was divided. _Divided to that fucking ass._ “Stop staring at him like that, you creep.”

“I can’t get him out of my head, Sergio. Look at him, swaying that ass on my face. He’s doing this on purpose.” Fernando kept his voice low as he’s running on the treadmill as if he’s running towards his prey. Sergio had to admit even though it’s creepy it’s kind of sexy.

“Are you even listening to me at all?”

“Of course, I am.” Fernando sounded offended Sergio thought he wasn’t listening. “If you need me, I’m in. Why didn’t they approve, again?”

Sergio rolled his eyes. “Because they think you would be a distraction.”

“But you guys need a distraction! I can be very distracting,” he winked. But Fernando himself was distracted again, he seemed to be considering something, “If I can get him, can we—”

“Oh no, he’s not coming with us. You can ask him to come with you and have fun at some point in our trip. But no, he’s not coming with us.”

“He’s pretty good at—”

Before Fernando could finish Sergio cut him off, “Swaying that ass? No. we don’t need that. Who needs a swaying French ass in a vacation.”

“I do,” Fernando’s still looking dreamy.

“—in a mission,” Sergio corrected. He smirked before he added, “Besides, we already got that talent here,” he’s swaying his ass at Fernando, who only shook his head and laughed.

\--

Sergio was desperately trying to show that there’s no any hidden motives behind his choices of candidates. “Come on, you can’t say no to Cris!”

“You just want him as your bed warmer,” Guti accused.

“It’s not that!” Sergio defended himself. “We can make use of Cris!”

“Alright then, we’ll get Ronaldo,” Raúl said, earning a wide grin from Sergio.

\--

“You’re ruining my date!” Cris pouted as Sergio carelessly ate the dinner he had made for himself and Gerard.

“He had ruined mine,” Sergio reminded Cris.

“Doesn’t mean you have to ruin _mine._ ”

Sergio had to admit, Cris had made quite an effort to prepare this romantic dinner in the dorm room. The table was well laid. There’s even ridiculous candles on it. But Sergio only ate from one plate, Cris still had one for himself. “Don’t worry, I only ate Gerard’s, you can have yours all to yourself.” He was on the way to put some of the food on his mouth when Cris finally took the spoon from his hand. “Hey!” he protested.

“Why are you here, Sergio?”

At first Sergio had only planned to tell the business to Cris and leave, but when he found out Gerard was coming for dinner… well, he couldn’t help himself. “I’m just asking you to join us.”

“Join us as in…?”

“The D.I.V.E. Games,” Sergio clarified, “with me, Iker, Raúl, and Guti.” When Cris didn’t say anything, he panicked, “You’re not planning to join Gerard’s squad, aren’t you?!”

Cris only gave him a flat look for his choice of words, “Gerard’s squad?”

“Come on, Cris!” Sergio stood up from his chair, then kneel on it, facing Cris who had been standing by his side, “Join us, Cris. You know you’re much better with us!” Sergio pleaded. “You can’t join them! You can leave me, but you can’t join them!” he knew he must have looked so desperate right now. For a while, there was only silence between them, and before Cris could answer, Gerard was there, wrapping his arm around Cris and kissed his temple, and Sergio got distracted, “How the hell did you get in here?!”

Gerard had a smug look on his face as he swung a key card between his fingers right in front of Sergio’s face. The look quickly faded though, “What the hell are you doing here?!”

Sergio ate the food from the plate again, mouth still full when he said, “Eating your dinner.”

Gerard pulled away from Cris and sat in front of Sergio, eyes never leaving Sergio when he stuffed his mouth with food from the other plate, “I still got some here.”

“That’s your boyfriend’s, you idiot.”

“No, I sit here, so this one’s mine. My boyfriend’s supposed to sit in front of me and that’s his,” Gerard pointed to Sergio’s plate.

“Well, I’m not your boyfriend, deal with it!”

“You deal with it!”

“Guys!” Cris shouted and silenced both Gerard and Sergio. He walked to Gerard, put his arms around Gerard’s neck to calm him down. Gerard pulled him closer to whispered at his ear.

Sergio rolled his eyes at the scene in front of him. Then he saw Cris pulled away from Gerard, arms still tangled around Gerard’s neck, “Geri, I…”

There were disappointment and feelings of betrayed in Gerard’s blue eyes, Sergio felt a pang on his heart, “You’ve promised, Cris.”

Sergio almost didn’t hear it, he was not sure if Gerard heard it, because Cris’ voice was too low when he said, “So have you.” Cris drew himself completely off Gerard. “I’ve made up my mind. I’m joining Sergio in this game.”

Gerard stood up from his seat, his voice was firm, “You said you would stand by my side.” Gerard turned to leave, but before that he said, “Thank you for the dinner, Cris.”

 Sergio felt like a jerk. “Cris, I…”

Cris inhaled as if trying to calm himself down, “Just go,” he requested. Sergio excused himself. Before Sergio reached the door Cris called him, “I’m still in. I’ll call you in the morning.”

After Sergio closed the door he couldn’t hold back the tears anymore, “So did you. You said you would never leave me, Gerard.”

\---

“Who else?” Guti asked.

“I want Xabi,” Iker said.

Sergio cheered in excitement, “Yes! Yes! Xabi!!!”

“Sure,” Raúl agreed. Sergio squinted his eyes at Raúl. “What?”

“You gave an easy yes because Iker said it first,” Sergio accused.

Guti rolled his eyes, “Of course, because Iker doesn’t think with his dick.”

Sergio reached across the table to attack Guti but Iker held him back.

\--

Iker offered to Xabi at lunchtime when it was just them at the table. “I can’t tell you the details right now, but that’s it.”

“Okay, I’m in.” Xabi said. He was silenced for a moment as if he had just remembered something. “But can you control Sergio and his flamenco?”

“Well, that’s a problem.”

\---

“I was thinking if we get Xabi maybe we can get Alvaro too.” Iker said.

\---

Xabi’s vision was dark. Someone covered his eyes. “Alvaro…”

“How could you know? I’m irritated,” Alvaro pouted as he took a seat besides Xabi.

“Oh you’re irritated? Well here I am elated,” Xabi teased. Alvaro just smacked him lightly. “Iker got a nice offer here.”

\---

“I’m not joining without him,” Morata pulled Isco closer to his side.

Sergio just rolled his eyes. _Well, one more wouldn’t harm, right?_ “Alright then, lovebirds, whatever.”

Both Isco and Morata giggled happily. Then Isco asked hopefully, “Shouldn’t we ask Marco too?”

Sergio was considering if it would be okay to add one more person to the squad, but Morata didn’t seem to like the idea, “Oh, shut up.”

“I’m not going without _mi picha_.”

Now both Sergio and Morata rolled their eyes at that. “Shall we fight again, Isco?”

“I don’t know, you tell me, Varo.”

They started to take a stand and Sergio was worried they’re going to launch themselves onto each other. He was about to stop them when they’re launching their fists and… “Haha! I win!” Isco exclaimed. “Rock beats scissor! I win! Marco’s coming with us!”

Sergio was about to protest that Isco was not the one to decide here, but it seemed like none of them noticed his presence anymore. “It’s not scissor, it’s gun!”

“There’s no gun! It’s called rock, paper, scissor for a reason!”

“It’s called _cachipún_!”

_This is not going to end._ Sergio thought to himself. He decided to leave the two idiots alone.

\--

“Wait, which Alvaro again we were talking about?” Sergio asked dumbly.

“Arbeloa, Sergio.” Iker sighed. “Look, I think it’s a great idea that you got them, but I don’t know if there’s still some space left.” He ran his fingers through his hair in frustration, “Three more people, Sergio? Really? Didn’t we plan to keep the whole mission a secret?”

“I think it’s too late for that. I’ll talk to Raúl. I’m sure the plane is pretty big, and it never harms to have more people work with you.”

\--

If the glass hadn’t been empty already, Iker must have been soaking wet by now. “And I was too quick to say that you don’t think with your dick!” Guti shouted at him and slammed the glass down on the table.

“Chema, calm down,” Raúl stood up and put his hands on Guti’s shoulders.

“We don’t really know him, Raúl! We can’t trust him!” Guti brushed off Raúl’s hand. “I even doubt he knows anything about this game, or even this university! I doubt we can make use of him, maybe he’s just a pretty face!”

Now Iker was the one to get angry, “I can assure you David is more than just a pretty face.”

“He’s still suspicious to me,” Guti insisted.

“No, we can’t involve David, Iker.” Raúl decided. “But sure you can take him for a ‘vacation’”

Sergio chimed in, “So I can take Fernando for a vacation as well?” when all eyes turned to him with disagreement he threatened them, “Or I’m going to bring that big picture of him again.”

Raúl and Iker groaned in frustration but Guti only said, “For you to kiss?”

\--

 “Wake up!” Raúl dragged Guti by the feet out of bed. But that man was a heavy sleeper. When Raúl decided he would just drag him all the way to the plane, his phone rang. “Iker? Please tell me everyone’s on the plane.”

“We are, we were wondering where you and Guti might be?”

Before Raúl could response it was taken over by Sergio, “Come on, Raúl!! We gotta be quick! Gerard’s mocking us from his plane!”

“More like he’s mocking _you,_ ” Iker said.

 

_They’ve been on it before they even got on the planes. Gerard was standing there, looking at his plane proudly, and of course, reporting with his periscope, “Today is The D.I.V.E. Game! Can’t wait! This game always turns me on!”_

_Sergio peeked up at the phone’s camera from Gerard’s shoulder. He decided to bomb the periscope. “The game turns you on? Never had an orgasm during it, but have been close, it’s kind of a turn on, yes.”_

_Gerard turned his head at Sergio, “What, somebody denied your orgasm?”_

_Sergio did his best not to blush. “It’s never good to come early. Gotta make it last through the extra time.”_

 

Gerard and his team had been on their own plane, right by their plane on the runway, and about to take off. Gerard was indeed, mocking Sergio from the window and that drove Sergio crazy. Sergio ran outside the plane eyes kept on Gerard from the windows as the other also ran on the same direction. Sergio ordered as he ran, “Start taxiing the plane, Iker!”

Sergio had forgotten that he’s still holding Iker’s phone while saying that, and Raúl could certainly hear him, “What are you doing?! I’m not on the plane yet! Don’t you dare take off now!” Raúl finally gave up on waking Guti up, and just carry the other man on his shoulder.

Iker, of course, was not doing as Sergio asked. So Sergio ran out of the plane to the water cannon nearby and shoot it to one of the window where he could see Gerard’s face. The plane was taxiing by now, but Gerard somehow managed to open the door and shouted at him, “Fuck you, Sergio! We’re leading! See you in Barcelona!” Sergio was about to shoot the water at Gerard’s face but somebody had pulled Gerard in before he did.


	5. Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya: The Painting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The guys were trying to steal the painting... stupid things happened.

Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona

 

“Everyone’s in position?” Raúl asked through the communicator. They had split off to different spots. After making sure everything’s ready, he instructed, “Arbeloa, you’ve broken into the security system?”

Alvaro who was doing his thing from the car answered, “Just a second… and yep, we’re in. Alarm’s off. I will keep replaying the unsuspicious recording while you guys on it.”

“Morata, Isco, Asensio, you guys ready?” Raúl asked. Instead of a simple yes, there was a debate on the line.

“No, I’m the distraction, you guys carry me,” Isco started.

“I thought we’ve agreed it’s gonna be Marco?” Morata protested.

“Yes, you heavy, bitch,” Marco argued.

“Did you just call me bitch?” Morata sounded pissed off.

“Not you! Isco!” Marco corrected.

Isco however misunderstood it, “That’s not me, that’s Alvaro. And yes, Alvaro you’re heavy. Which one offends you more, being called bitch or heavy?”

“I’m heavier than both of you because I have more muscles!”

“If you do have so many muscles then you should be able to carry me!” Isco said.

“Stop it!” Iker snapped and shut the three of them. “Just do your job!”

So the three of them walked into the museum, looking as casual as possible. However, they looked more ridiculous to Iker who saw them walking in, like desperately-trying-to-play-it-cool look

“Shall we do it here?” Marco asked.

“No, we should do it in the room with the painting,” Morata reminded him.

Isco looked around them “Where is it again?”

“I don’t know, just look for the painting,” Morata said.

Marco doubted that, “Do you remember the painting?”

“Um.. no?” both Isco and Morata said simultaneously.

That got Iker really really mad, he tried to keep his voice as low as possible, “Do any of you remember the painting? _Any of you_?!” he asked everyone on the line. There was only silence, and Iker knew they’re doomed.

“I do!” Sergio finally said. “It’s right in front of me!”

 “Tell them where you are, Sergio,” Iker said.

“How?” Sergio, Morata, Isco, and Marco, simultaneously asked.

“Get out of that room so they can see you from the oval room, then after they locate you, you walk back to the room.”

“But this museum is like a maze, Iker, ” but Sergio did what he was told anyway, and Morata finally located him. “I can’t believe how unprofessional you guys are,” Iker complained.

When they finally reached the room, they split off, appreciating the paintings. “How do I do it guys?”

“I don’t know. Cough or something,” Isco suggested.

Marco did. But that only get everyone in the room looking at him, as it was so loud and unnatural. He nervously started to look somewhere else. “Not working.”

“You cough like a girl,” Morata commented. “Why don’t try sneezing?” he only said it to make fun of Marco and was not expecting Marco to actually sneeze and when he did, Morata had a hard time not to laugh.

“Oh my God, now everyone’s suspecting us.” Isco panicked “Faint, Marco! Just faint already!”

Marco let out one more sneeze and fell backward as if he was fainting. When he hit the ground he inwardly cursed. “Damn, you guys were supposed to catch me,” he gritted through the communicator.

People were starting to gather around him. Morata and Isco pushed their way through the crowd. “Man, are you okay?!” Isco panicked.

_No, I am not,_ Marco wanted to say but restrained himself. He’s supposed to be fainted. When Isco and Morata started lifting him up, he groaned in pain. _Damn, he forgot he’s supposed to be unconscious. What’s he supposed to do, now?_ He sneezed.

Isco played along with the improvisation. He let go of Marco and pulled away, “It’s a virus!”

Morata was confused, _what the fuck._ “Call a doctor!”

“I’m on it!” Sergio shouted from the crowd.

“Xabi, that’s your cue,” Raúl reminded.

Xabi was looking at the painting they’re trying to replace with the real one, “Isn’t it too big for a stretcher?”

“Isn’t it too late for rethinking the strategy?” Guti said as he’s helping Cris to lift the ‘stretcher’ they made.

“We’re on it, Raúl” Cris informed through the communicator. “Wait for the sexy dr. Cristiano Ronaldo in action.”

“Meh, you’re not the doctor, Xabi is,” Guti reminded him as they’re walking to the museum.

“Why can’t I be the doctor, again?” Cris complained.

“Stop the complaining and put your best rushing-because-somebody’s-dying act,” Xabi ordered.

“Sergio, take the painting, Iker, move in,” Raúl commanded.

 

Meanwhile, the room was full of drama. “Calm down! It’s not a virus!” Morata exclaimed. They can’t have the people pulled away from them and noticed that Sergio had been trying to take the painting off the wall. They had to stay to be the centre of attention.

Isco seemed to get this because he started all the drama, “No, no, no, Picha don’t die! No!”

“I don’t think, I can… I…”

Iker was making his way to the target room when he bumped into David on the way. “David? What are you doing here?”

“Appreciating art?” David offered. “Iker, did you hear all the noise that somebody’s dying? Should we—”

“Yeah, I’m looking for it. Look, you’re not supposed to be here,”

“Why? You said I can go anywhere until lunch time.”

“Iker, is that David?” Raúl asked through the communicator.

“No,” Iker panicked, “Yes!”

“So what’s the problem? And what are _you_ doing here?” David started becoming suspicious.

“Iker, you need to move to your place, now! Xabi’s coming,” Raúl reminded him.

“Oh shit!”

“What is it?” David couldn’t understand and now he really was suspicious.

“You stay here, okay?” Iker asked him.

“No.”

“Yes, you will!” Iker was so desperate right now.

“No, I won’t.” David said firmly, but Iker had already been going, so he followed.

When Iker realized David was following him, he grabbed David’s hand, “Alright, but be quiet.”

David looked at their entangled hand, “Iker, why are you wearing gloves?”

Iker didn’t answer him he stood by the doorway and when Xabi, Cris, and Guti reached the doorway, they toss the painting. As Xabi, Cris, and Guti moved towards the crowd surrounding Marco, announcing their arrival as medics. Iker moved towards the wall.

David was gaping at the scene in front of him, the gape turned into a scream when Iker gracefully put the painting on the wall. Iker was frozen for a second, before he finally covered David’s mouth with his hand and hoisted him up, carrying him outside.

Hearing that, Marco screamed louder as if it hurt him when they put him on to the scratcher, he had no idea what was that, but they need to keep everyone’s attention on them.

The rest played their part to keep everyone’s attention. Isco exaggerating his concern for Marco, Xabi gave him ‘medication’, and Cris had his way by ripping his clothes off for a ‘compression’ that they ‘happened not to bring’. While the crowd seemed to be surprised but impressed with the act, Marco couldn’t hold back his cringe, and Isco screamed in disgust, and everything went chaos.

Xabi took over the situation, focusing back to ‘take care’ of Marco. “Alright, hoist him up! One, two!” But he saw that Iker was gone and Sergio hadn’t managed to hold the painting. They’re not gonna make the toss if he hadn’t. But it seemed like Sergio could wait, because Cris and Guti were hoisting the stretcher in opposite directions, and when the opposing force made them fell backward on top of Marco, which made him squealed in pain, this time for real.

The painting was heavy, _where the fuck is Iker?_ He’s not the one who’s trained to make the toss. “Need help there?” a familiar voice offered, and Sergio felt so grateful. He turned around, “Nando!”

“Let’s lift it, shall we?” Fernando helped him to hold the painting.

“Wait, wait till they come here,” Sergio said. Cris and Guti was coming in their direction, carrying Marco on the stretcher. “One, two—”

“Wait, how do we get—”

Before Fernando could even finished his question of how to get the painting under the stretcher, Guti and Cris had ‘accidentally’ flipped the stretchers, for them to put the painting, making Marco almost fall to the ground if it wasn’t for Morata and Isco catching him. _At least now they remembered,_ Marco was back on the stretcher in a second, and he could feel the painting underneath him.

“We got it,” Xabi reported through the communicator.

“With Fernando’s help,” Sergio added. “Iker, where the hell are you?!”

“I.. wait a second, Sergio.” Iker had dragged David to an empty room in the museum.

“Sergio?!” David asked in confusion. He noticed the small intercom on Iker’s ear though, barely palpable. He reached out to take it gently. “Iker, what are you doing?”

“I’ll tell you, but don’t freak out.”

David looked him in the eyes as he came to realization, _You’re the thief._ “You’re stealing the painting.”

“We are.”

_No, not you, Iker._ “I trusted you!”

“Look, I’m sorry I told you it was a vacation, okay? But it’s not a complete lie! I promise you there’s gonna be some—”

“You’re _stealing_ the painting?!”

“Why is it the problem?” Iker was incredulous, but then it dawned on him. He had had his doubt before, but he wasn’t certain that, “You do know what kind of university are you going to, right, Dave?”

“ _What?_ ”

“Oh my God, you really have no idea.”

“Iker, what—”

Iker bent a little, slowly took his intercom from David’s fingers, and looked at him in the eyes, “Do not freak out,” that was his only warning before he hoisted David up, hand covering his mouth, and ran out of the museum towards the car where everyone else was waiting. David was squirming to break loose to no avail. Iker ran faster as he saw the car was moving towards them, Arbeloa let his head out of the driver’s window, “Faster, Iker!”

Sergio opened the passenger’s door, leaning out, “Get here!”

“Is that David?” Guti let his head out of the passenger’s door to look closer, “Oh no, no, no, he’s not getting in,” Guti reached for the door to close it.

Sergio stopped him, “Are you, crazy? We can’t leave them there!” Soon they were fighting. The car’s still moving, and the door still opened, Sergio’s pinned under Guti’s weight, their head was outside the car, the door could bang their heads any minute. Raúl tried to pull Guti off, but it was rather hard to do from the front seat.

“Raúl, I can’t see anything, you’re blocking my view!” Arbeloa told him as he’s slowing down the car, and Raúl let go of Guti.

Iker had finally reached the car and practically threw David inside, who was immediately pushed away by Guti, but Sergio grabbed him quickly. David’s heart was beating faster. _How could Iker expect him not to freak out?_

Iker jumped and held to the door’s frame of the car, pushing David back inside before making his way in and closed the door. He got some explaining to do.

 

The car was chaos. Everyone was shouting at each other, blaming each other. Until a voice shut them all up. “Whoa that was really cool guys!!!” All heads turn to see Thomas peeking up from the rearmost seat.

“Who the fuck brought him here?!” Raúl accused, “Xabi, you’re not bringing your crew here, right?!”

“It’s not me!” Xabi defended himself and slapped Thomas head, “How did you get here?!”

“Whoa relax, everyone, I brought myself here,” Thomas explained, “Alone. I only use my phone for the recording—”

“You’ve been using your phone for what?!” Cris snatched the phone in Thomas hand. “Is that me?” he examined the photo on Thomas phone closer, “I look good,” he smirked.

Sergio snatched the phone from Cris’ hand to see it, “You look like a rapist.”

“Hey! Give me back my phone!” Thomas tried to grab it but Sergio stretched his arm away from Thomas’ reach. “Or I’m calling the authorities!”

“How could you call the authorities, you got no phone,” Cristiano pointed out.

Thomas put something on his ear, “Watch out, I’m calling the authorities.”

Marco looked at it closely, “Is that a passport?”

“Ssshh…” Thomas shushed him, but by then everybody had realized that it was not a phone.

Iker glanced at the phone screen on Sergio’s hand, “You posted it?!”

“Of course! There should be a live report of the game!”

“Can anyone explain what the hell is this game is?!” David finally spoke up.

“It’s the annual event of the university to celebrate its birthday,” Iker explained. “Competition of who’s plotting the greatest scheme of the year.”

“You criminals.” Then everything dawned on him. It made perfect sense now. He took a moment to process it all and ignored Iker’s attempt to console him. “Let me go!”

“No,” Iker said firmly.

“You’re holding me a hostage here!”

Iker squeezed his hand and looked him in the eye, “Have I ever do you any harm, David?” David didn’t answer. “David?”

“You did crash me with your car.”  David said even though he knew it was more his fault than Iker’s.

“As I remember it was you crashing my car with your bike.” Iker’s grip on David’s hand starting to get loose, but none of them let go. Iker couldn’t let go. _No, David might not know what’s coming to him when he got into the university. David might hate what they do, what he does, but he couldn’t let David hate_ him. Iker opened the car’s door. He could hear everyone protesting since they’re driving on the highway, but his world was focused on David. David didn’t even flinch at the idea of being kicked out of the car or jumping out by himself to get away. Iker had suspected that much since the day they met, not everyone could _intentionally_ crash a car with minimum harm, that’s why he didn’t think David had no idea about what kind of university he’s going to. “Go on, if you don’t trust me you can get away from me now.” He dreaded that he would really lose David now, or maybe David would kick him out of the car, even though he believed David would never do such things to him. “But you need to know that the way you make me feel for you is worse and far more dangerous than what we’re doing here,” that made David gripped his collar tightly, strangling and pushing all his weight down on Iker and their heads were out now, the car’s still moving at high speed, Iker could feel the wild wind on his face, and he saw above him that it was messing with David’s hair, _beautiful_ , he thought. _He’s ready to die if this is what angle of death looks like_. Then David kissed him hard.

Iker was smiling into the kiss. _That beautiful smile he loves so much, damn._ David only kissed him harder. He didn’t want to lose this. The wind was blowing, enfolding them in the moment. He still couldn’t deal with the fact that he should turn Iker in. He’s in too deep.

 

 

Els Quatre Gats, Barcelona

 

“Which one, Gerard? Which one?!” Xavi lost his patience after they examined all the paintings in the café.

Ter Stegen was catching the paintings the others throwing at him to put back on the wall.

Gerard’s eyes were still fixated on the painting on the wall, _painted_ on the wall. “I think it’s this one. No, it’s something like this one. They’re serial.”

“Yeah, we can’t really do much about that one, dude,” Neymar commented. “It’s _painted on_ the wall. You said the clue was behind the painting.”

“Gerard, you’re an idiot,” Leo called him, “Look!” he showed Gerard his phone.

Gerard looked at the pic on the phone, a coquettish look on his face, “Yeah, I’ve seen the full package.” It was a photo of Cris ripping off his clothes, “Leo, I know you’re jealous that I got him, but we need to focus now.”

“Not him! Get him out of your hair for a while!” Leo smacked him. “The painting behind him!” He pointed.

Gerard looked closer, the photo didn’t capture the whole painting, and the painting clearly was not the figure of the photo. But it’s clear that that painting was the same painting as the one on the wall he’d been examined.

“We got the wrong place, you, dumbass,” Leo said.

Gerard ran towards the door, “Well, then let’s go!”

“Don’t you think it’s too late?” Cesc ran following him. “If Cris was there they’ve probably taken the painting by now.”

Gerard dismissed that, “They’re not gonna take the painting, they’re only looking for the clue.”

 

\--

 

Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya

 

They were on the roof and the sun was setting. Villa had calculated everything and was preparing Gerard to get him down from the roof with a hoist.

“Why is it Gerard again?” Cesc asked, “Look we got so many smaller people here, why _him_?”

“Because he’s the one who knows the painting, and probably the one strong enough to lift it” Villa simply stated. “I was just about to buy the painting but apparently it’s not for sale. Alright, you’re ready?” but before Gerard could answer Villa had pushed him down and he was screaming.

Gerard almost hit the ground with his face before somebody stopped him from falling straight to the floor. He was hoisted up a little until he was face to face with the painting. _Yes, he’s pretty sure it’s this one._ He lifted the painting to see what’s behind it, what he found confused him. “ _Get back here, you fucker!_?” He desperately looking for another clue on the painting, but found nothing. It was so hard since the painting was so big and heavy even though not as heavy as he thought it would be, and he’s hanging from the roof. He finally gave up and put the painting back on the wall, “Pull me back!”

Villa pulled Gerard up like a pro, but kept Gerard hanging on the hoist. “What do you get?”

“Nothing, they switched the painting.”

“So what do we do now?” Cesc asked. “Knocked their door and ask to look at the painting?”

“Exactly,” Gerard grinned.

“How do you expect they’re gonna open the door?”

“We’re not gonna use the door. We make an appointment first.”


	6. Barcelo Raval: He's The Bomb!

Barcelo Raval, Barcelona

 

Gerard couldn’t believe he had to deal with rope and hoist twice in the past few hours. Now he’s climbing a hotel to reach one balcony, hopefully the right one. He felt like a teenager sneaking up to his girlfriend room to have sex—maybe he’s getting one tonight if he’s lucky—, only this is too high for a regular sneak up. He finally reached the rooftop and untied himself. In all sudden, somebody jumped out of the pool on the rooftop, making him stumbled and hit the railing with his back, bending over backward.

“Gerard?” His attacker step back.

Gerard’s recovering from his shock, he almost fell down after making all the effort climbing up here safely. “Cris? What was that for?”

“I thought you were someone else.”

“You’re expecting someone else?”

“Why don’t you use the door?!”

Instead of answering Gerard only walked closer, closed the distance between them and gave him a mild, soft, gentle, kiss. “Hey,” he smiled. Gerard looked at Cris in his swimsuit, “Nice swimsuit. You’re swimming? Want me to join?”

Cris found himself lost in Gerard’s eyes. But soon he came back to his senses. He pushed Gerard away, “Fuck off! You’re here for the painting!”

Gerard gave him a crooked smile, “Maybe.” His smile soon died when he heard a loud noise behind him, he turned around to face a helicopter floating. He narrowed his eyes and recognized the familiar figure on the helicopter. “What are you doing here?!” Gerard snapped.

“What are _you_ doing here, Gerard?” a familiar voice came from the intercom in the helicopter.

“I do what I want.” Gerard knew he probably looked ridiculous talking to a helicopter right now.

The helicopter’s door opened, revealing his father, “Yeah, like having secret rendezvous with your _boyfriend_.”

There was disapproval and danger in his father’s voice, and Gerard knew he couldn’t let his father know that Cris was his boyfriend while was at the same time against him on the legacy. “He’s not my boyfriend.”

“Then who is he?”

“Nobody.”

Those words hurt Cris more than it should be.

“Now please leave me alone to do my business.”

“I’m here to pick you up, Gerard. That person behind you has betrayed you. Somebody’s coming to you. Now jump here!”

Instead of wondering what his father had meant with betrayal and someone coming after him he freaked out of idea of the last sentence. “No way! Are you crazy?!”

“Don’t be a pussy, Gerard. Jump and get your ass here!”

“No!” he turned to Cris, “Cris, what did he mean you betrayed me?”

“Yeah, yeah right, ask for an explanation from your boyfriend.”

Gerard turned his head to his father and snapped, “Shut up! He’s not my boyfriend!”

Cris started regretting what he had done. But instead of explaining things to Gerard he said, “Yeah, I’m nobody.”

“I can’t let him get to you, Cris. I’ve promised to keep you save, remember?” for a second Cris’ eyes shine with something he couldn’t name of. Gerard asked with voice so low, hoping his father couldn’t hear him, “Now back to the question, what have you done, Cris?”

“Gerard, if you don’t jump here now I’ll leave you alone,” his father warned.

“Well, I will never jump there! Don’t you get it?! Leave me alone!” he shouted.

“Alright, do it your way,” and the helicopter flew away.

“He threatened me Gerard,” Cris explained. “He also said he could get to your father. He’s talking about legacy something, fuck I don’t even understand. So I told him you’re coming. This is a trap.”

“I can’t believe you betrayed me,” Gerard said and there was disappointment in his eyes that broke Cris’ heart. “Who is _he_?”

Before Cris could answer, the sound of helicopter rotor was back. Gerard turned around, “I told you I’m not jumping there!” but then he realized it was another helicopter. This one was bigger and had a ladder which soon was snapped attached on to the railing on the balcony.

The door was opened, and a familiar figure showed up, holding a speaker, “Oh I’m not asking you to jump, Gerard. You’ll die, and aren’t you too precious for it?”

“Zlatan,” he gritted his teeth.

“Miss me? I’m going to count, Gerard. If you don’t climb the ladder in ten seconds I’m gonna blow the whole building up to dig you out of the debris. Ten!”

Gerard knew from experience, that Zlatan never bluffed. _Nine!_ He had no choice. _Eight!_ he turned around to face Cris. _Seven!_ He cupped his face, touching the soft skin. “Is this still love when we keep hurting each other? In the end that’s all we do, intentionally or not,” _Six!_ and he crushed his lips on Cris’ for one last time. _Five!_ “Goodbye.” And Gerard made his way through the ladder, but he tripped, and he could hear Cris screaming.

He was lucky he was still be able to grip the rope near the helicopter door and hold on. He looked up and he saw Zlatan was sneering at him, “Four,” he said holding up something in his hand, might be a bomb trigger he had no idea.

“Gerard!” Cris reached out to get him but it was to no avail. Gerard swing his body up and failed at the first attempt.

“Three.”

Gerard tried again. “Two.” He did it again and flipping his body into the helicopter and hit Zlatan on the face with his feet, making the other man stumbled down. But Zlatan was quick to get up, unattached the ladder, closed the door, and tied him down on a seat before he could be satisfied with the kick.

“Let me tell you, Gerard. While you and your stupid friends couldn’t even get to the first clue at all, your competitor who’s holding the clue has no clue that there’s a clue at all. They think they’ve gotten the big prize, the most valuable treasure on earth which happened to be your family legacy, which none of us knows exactly what that is!” Zlatan took a breath, “Meanwhile, I here have gotten the first clue long before you guys even get to Barcelona. And I did that by myself,” he bragged. “However, I heard that the second clue will demand some biometric identification. So I think I’m just gonna leave that to you Gerard. You’re going to fetch it for me.”

 

 

Cristiano rushed to the elevator. He had to tell the others about the clue on the painting. But when the elevator’s door opened he was face to face with an angry, worried looking Cesc. He was about to turn back but Cesc quickly grabbed him inside the elevator and slammed him against the elevator wall. “Who took him?!”

The elevator’s door closed. Cristiano reached out for the panel to press the number of the floor where their room was. But it was rather hard when Cesc pinned him like that.

“Who?! I was down there watching him almost died falling from the helicopter, who’s in there?!” Cesc demanded.

Cristiano managed to break free from Cesc’s grip and press the number of the floor. “Zlatan,” he finally said.

“How did he get to Gerard?”

“He’s Zlatan.” Cris said as if it explained everything.

“I know Zlatan had been after the legacy as well, he wanted the treasure. But this is your base, not ours.”

_Treasure?_ Now Cris was confused. _So that was the legacy? It couldn’t be the painting, right?_ “Maybe he knows we’re the one who got the painiting.”

“Yeah, but he took Gerard, not the painting.” Cesc squinted his eyes. “Is the painting even with you?” when he got no answer, he pushed, “You told him Gerard’s coming, didn’t you?”

_How does he know that? Surely, he couldn’t hear that from down there._ Cris found himself pinned against the elevator doors but then the door slid open and they stumbled to the floor.

Cris quickly got up and ran away, Cesc chasing him, “You did! Didn’t you?!” He reached the door and knocked it violently, pressing the bell over repeatedly. When the door finally opened Cesc had jumped on to him knocked him down onto the floor inside Raúl’s room.

Cris looked up around him. The whole team was there, surrounding Xabi who was examining the painting with some tools Cris couldn’t name, and now all eyes were on them. “Oh, you finally arrive,” Raúl said casually. “After ignoring our phone calls, I thought you would never come.”

Guti assessed Cris, “Told you he didn’t bring his phone, Raúl.”

“You went swimming?” Isco was getting excited, “Why didn’t you invite me to join?” he grabbed Marco’s hand, “Let’s go swimming!”

 “Why did you bring him here, Cris?” asked Iker, referring to Cesc.

“I didn’t!” Cris tried to get Cesc off him. “He followed me here!”

Cesc stood up and approached the painting. “Have you guys broken the code?”

Sergio blocked him from the painting. “Whoa, what makes you think we will tell you the code?”

Cesc looked him in the eye, “Because Gerard is in danger and I need that clue to find him.”

Sergio rolled his eyes. “What sort of danger?”

“Zlatan,” Cesc turned to Cris, giving him a disdain look.

Sergio laughed, “Oh how bad can he be?”

“The last time Zlatan and Gerard went out together he almost burned Gerard.” When Sergio started to laugh Cesc added, “literally. Zlatan will do anything to get the treasure from the legacy.”

Sergio stopped laughing. “And why are you looking at Cris like that?”

“Because he’s the one who turned Gerard in to Zlatan,” Cesc said bitterly. “And Gerard almost died falling from a helicopter.”

“For your information all of us in this building almost dead if it wasn’t for Gerard risking his own life,” Cris tried to defend himself but it sounded more like an appreciation for Gerard which made it worse for him.

“And so that makes it okay?!” Cesc cried out and there was glint of tears in his eyes. Typical Gerard, of course he would do that, risking his own life for others.

Sergio walked to Cris and asked, “Why did you do that?”

Cris dismissed him, “Oh, don’t start acting like you care now! You hate him!”

“Well, I will never turn him in to some psycho or let him die falling!” Sergio countered

“It’s not like I want him dead!” Cristiano defended himself. He really couldn’t understand Sergio right now. “I tried to help when he fell!”

Iker approached Cesc, holding a scrap of paper. He gave it to Cesc. “Cesc, here’s the clue we found on the painting. We’ll find Gerard, I promise.”

“Iker, you can’t do that! You’re breaking the game’s rules!” Cris protested.

“And you didn’t?” Cesc spat bitterly.

Cris ignored him and kept talking to Iker, “We can safe Gerard ourselves if we want. How can you trust him? He just wants to win the game!”

Cesc turned to Cris and looked him in the eyes, “There is nothing in this world right now, no wins, no treasures, that I want more than to keep my best friend safe.” He pushed passed Cris and walked towards the door, but before he left, he said, “I wish he broke up with you.”

“We did,” Cris said after Cesc left.

 

 

Iker turned to Cristiano, “Cris, you said we’re going to die, if it wasn’t for Gerard?”

“Yeah, there’s a bomb somewhere in this building…”

Iker turned to the others, “Find the bomb!”

“But Zlatan didn’t trigger the bomb.” Cris told him.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure he didn’t bother to defuse the bomb either.”

“I’ve located the bomb,” Xabi informed, “It’s on the basement.” He threw a device to Iker. It’s the bomb locator.

Iker gave it to Cristiano, “Find it, defuse it!”

Cristiano took the device and a communicator before running out of the room and made his way to the basement. When he reached the basement the device beeping wildly, showing the location of the bomb. But when he got to the location, someone had already been there. Cristiano launched himself at the man crouching at the bomb, strangling.

The man was writhing to get free, then attacked him with a pole, sending Cristiano off him. The man went back to the bomb. When Cristiano tried to attack him again, the man grabbed Cristiano by the wrists and pinned him against a wall. “You’re the one who put the bomb?”

“No, you are!”

“I’ve just defused the bomb, you don’t seem to like it very much. Who are you?”

“No, who are you?!” Cris asked back, just because the man put off the bomb doesn’t mean he’s on their side.

“If you don’t tell me who you are then you’re gonna have to come with me.” The man tried to drew Cristiano with him, but something’s attached at his wrist, and Cristiano was holding his hands, preventing him from drawing away. He’s handcuffed.

Cristiano smiled smugly. “It’s called distraction, darling.” He pushed the man and was about to drag him when he realized he had handcuffed both their hands, so he was not left with much space to move.

“It’s called impracticality, darling,” the man mocked him.

Then suddenly there’s a car moving their way to crash them. “Jump!” Cristiano said, and they both jumped and landed on the car’s hood, crashing forward on the window, “Move!” the both slid to the car’s roof. The car was moving back and forth, swirling and drifting to get them fall off the car. “We need to get off this car!”

“Well, thanks to you, it’s rather hard to do with our hands cuffed like this!” the man responded sarcastically.

“Is the driver’s trying to kill you? Because if he does I'm gonna open this cuff and let him do it!”

“I thought he’s trying to kill you! And why don't you just open the cuff anyway?!”

Cristiano tried to reach for the key in his pocket, the man shrieked as he brought his hand along his crotch and hip to his pocket. “Shut up! And don't touch me!”

“Well, it’s rather hard not to, isn't it?!”

Cristiano finally got the key, he slid it off his pocket but then it slipped off his hand and fell from the car top to the back of the car, he reached out to grab it, “Take it! Take it!” he told the man as he brought their hands to reach the key.

But the key slid further and down to the ground. The man gave him a disgruntled look. “Very smart, don't you have it at your cuff or something? How did you handcuff us in the first place?”

_No he doesn't have it in his cuff._ “Not gonna tell my trick!” Cristiano insisted as he tried to get them to sit up on the car’s roof, facing the back of the car. “We’re gonna have to slid, on my count, one! Two! Three!”

They slid off the car and landed on the ground. The car started to drive backward, Cristiano hoisted the man up and ran away. “You’re holding my ass!” the man protested.

“We don't have much choice!” Cristiano said as he made their way out.

“You’re the stupidest criminal I know!”

“And you’re the smartest criminal?” _and probably the cutest_.  _You defused the bomb? You_ are _the bomb!_

“I’m not a criminal! And I’m gonna put you in jail after we get out of here!”

_Fuck, he’s in trouble._ “Then I’m kidnapping you!” he couldn’t see anything, the man was blocking his view. “By the way, you’re blocking my view! Make yourself useful and be my eyes!”

Bu the man was facing the other way, “The car’s still chasing us!”

“I know!” Cristiano tried his best to run faster without hitting anything in his way. The man brought their hands to his pocket, and then held out a gun, “What are you doing?!”

The man drew Cristiano’s hand up backward as he’s shooting the car behind them. Cristiano’s arm was straining with pain. “It’s my partner! Maybe he’s trying to kill me after all.”

“You must not be such a good partner, huh?”

“The treasure brings the worst out of all of us. We’re trying to bring down all others who are after the treasure but the family. My partner wants it for himself.”

“Well, I am with the heir of the treasure,” Cristiano told the man, maybe not really, but hey, he wasn't against Gerard either as in trying to kill him for the treasure. “You work for the family? Or you're the family?”

“I’m paid by the family, so yeah, I work for them.”

“Man, you can do something better than that.”

Cristiano felt a gun against his head. “If you mean I can take the treasure for myself—”

“No! I mean, you can help us, you can be with us!” Cristiano tried to explain with a gesture, then he saw his hand moving in front of him, no other hand cuffed to his. He was surprised and screamed.

“Sssh… You said you’re going to kidnap me? Seems like the other way around now.” The man said as he let go from Cristiano’s arm, their other hands were still cuffed together.

“You could do that all this time?!” Cristiano said in disbelief.

“Yeah, but where's the fun in that?” Cristiano was scandalized to hear that. The man was dragging him back towards the car but then he realized, “I've shot the tires, and the driver, what are we gonna do now?”

Just as if answering the question, the others arrived with their car, Iker opened the window and shouted from the driver seat, “Cristiano! Get in the car!”

Cristiano dragged the man towards the car, who's now looking at him but not protesting and followed him to the car, “Cristiano, huh?”

Raúl opened the door, “Who is that, Cris?!”

Before Cris could answer, the man introduced himself as he got into the car first, “Kakà, Ricardo Kakà.”


	7. Mediterranean Sea: You're My Deepest Blue.

Cesc told the rest of the team about Gerard, and now they’re trying to break the code.

“What is this?” Xavi looked at the numbers on the scrap of paper.

“Maybe it’s a phone number!” Neymar said enthusiastically and grabbed his phone to dial a number.

“Really? What kind of phone number?” Leo challenged.

“We’ll see,” Neymar grinned smugly as he put the phone on his ear.

As his grin died down, Leo was satisfied, “No, it’s not a phone number.”

Ter Stegen, who had been examining the numbers smiled, “It’s a longitude and latitude.” He looked up for it using his phone. “One problem, though. It’s in the sea.”

Xavi grinned, “Hey, Andres, we still got that ship that David stole?”

“Embezzled,” Villa corrected.

“Same thing.”

“Yes?” Andres said. “I’ve been taking care of the ship since none of you seem to be able to do that.”

“Prepare the ship!” Xavi ordered.

 

\--

 

Mediterranean Sea

 

They’re flying above the sea. “Jump!” Zlatan was pushing Gerard at the edge of the helicopter.

“No!” Gerard freaked out, hands gripping the doorframe tightly. _There’s no way he’s going to jump there._ But Zlatan kept pushing him and it’s impossible to hold on forever. “It’s too high!”

“No, it’s not. You’ll be fine. I’ve calculated everything.”

“Look at the rocks!” Gerard screamed in horror.

“They’re far away, you won’t hit them,” Zlatan said calmly.

“How if this is not the right place? It can’t be in the sea!” Now Gerard was desperate.

“I’ve calculated everything, and I never miscalculate.” Zlatan was losing his patience. “Now jump and fetch it!”

“I can’t swim!” he finally shouted through the roar of the rotor.

“I remember very well that you can swim.” Zlatan didn’t believe him. “Remember our date, darling?”

It was terrible horrible, _no, scratch that,_ horrific date, Gerard remembered.

 

_They were having dinner in a canoe, beautiful lake, the night sky was filled with stars, they had delicious food, and the moon and the candlelight were reflected on the water. If only it had gone well it should have been very romantic. But Zlatan was so full of himself. “Look at the stars, Gerard. They shine eternally, just as the fire you have inside for me.”_

_Gerard, being an asshole that he was, decided to be pedantic, “You know, actually, stars died at some point. Damn, the stars you’re looking right now might have died already. You might be only seeing the light of many years ago since it took so long for the light to travel here.”_

_“You’re saying you don’t have that fire inside of you for me, Gerard?”_

_“What if I don’t?” Gerard was just teasing, really._

_“Then I’m gonna put it inside of you.” Zlatan’s leaning towards him._

_“How romantic,” Gerard closed his eyes, thinking Zlatan was about to kiss him, but instead he feltl a strange, uncomfortable heat near his chest. He opened his eyes and saw that Zlatan was holding the candle holder—with the candles of course—near his chest. “What the fuck?!” he was startled and moved backward, eyes wide “You’re going to burn me?!”_

_“If I can’t do that I’m going to burn the whole world down to dig you out of the ashes.”_

_Zlatan didn’t move towards him, but Gerard was still eyeing the candles in his hands suspiciously. “If you mean it figuratively, really, it’s romantic. But knowing you it sounds creepy.” He shuddered with horror. “Please, put it down.” When Zlatan didn’t do it he moved forward to reach the candles from Zlatan’s hand. “Please.”_

_Zlatan revolted when Gerard held the candle holder in his hand. “No one seizes things from me!”_

_Gerard quickly withdrew his hand, “Okay, okay.” But the gesture coupled with Zlatan’s force only sent the candles flying in the air, and landed on behind him, and the canoe started to catch fire. Gerard screamed and jumped onto Zlatan’s lap._

_Zlatan was surprised by the sudden movement and pushed Gerard, throwing him into the fire. Gerard, trying to avoid the fire, making the canoe loss its balance and flip, they fell into the water, so did the food. Gerard wished at least the fire would have died down by now. But when he got his head out of the water, the fire still burning the canoe. Zlatan was very angry, and Gerard swam as fast as he could to the land. He was not thinking what he was avoiding, the fire, or Zlatan._

Gerard started making other excuses, “What if there are sharks down there?”

“You’re facing the deadliest shark right now. How bad ordinary sharks can be?” Zlatan smirked and pushed him—and this time succeeding—out the helicopter into the sea.

Gerard had never screamed louder in his life.

 

 

“It’s him! He’s gonna push him!” Cesc pointed at the helicopter. “Faster!”

“We can’t go faster than this,” Villa told him.

Cesc panicked and started pacing around. Then he saw a jet ski. “Hey!” he called the rider, “Can I get your jet ski?”

“What?”

“Can I get your jet ski?!”

“I can’t hear you!”

“Fuck it, you’re not gonna agree anyway,” Cesc jumped into the sea and pushed the rider off the speedboat. He got on the jet ski and rode it fast to Gerard.

 

 

As they’re enjoying the view from the deck, Guti poked Sergio, “Is that Gerard on the helicopter?”

Sergio looked at which Guti pointed, “It’s him! That must be the location!” Sergio ran into the cabin, “Iker, go faster! I can see Gerard hanging on the helicopter!” then the realization hit him, “Oh my God! I think he’s going to jump!”

“What?!”

“I should probably swim there first!” Sergio ran out of the cabin, totally ignoring Iker’s shout of disapproval. He took off his shirt and pants, and jumped into the sea. When he reached the area where the water was rippling by the wave the wind sent by the helicopter rotor, the water in front of him splashed at his face. Someone rose up to the surface. It was Gerard.

Gerard saw him, but didn’t say anything and dived in. Sergio followed. It was a beautiful sea. He knew it was beautiful from above, but down here, with the colourful corals and fishes and other creatures, engulfed in the blue of sea, it’s breath taking. Sergio honestly had no idea where he’s supposed to go, so he just followed Gerard.

There was a distinctive coral on the bottom of the sea, it had a logo on it. Sergio felt like he had seen it somewhere but couldn’t recall where exactly. Gerard looked so relaxed, he put his hand on the coral and it lighten up in many colours. Sergio jumped and screamed, realizing the water got into his mouth, he stopped. Then magically, at least Sergio thought it was magic, the corals shifted, revealing something glinting. _A small silver stick? The infamous treasure is just a stick lost in the sea?_

Gerard took it. He did something with it and suddenly it emitted light, projected something on the corals. _A_ _cup? It seems familiar. And… another longitude?_ Gerard looked at it, then a smile spreading across his face, his eyes were sparking up. Sergio looked at them and couldn’t help to think how beautiful those blue eyes in the blue sea.

Sergio caught a glint of something else that shone blue. It was a germ. _How did it get here?_ He was so excited and about to tell Gerard about it, but when he opened his mouth the water rushed in, he quickly shut his mouth and just took the germ, flaunted it in Gerard’s face. Gerard just rolled his eyes.

Gerard swam up but stopped in a sudden. He turned around facing the direction of a cliff. Sergio remembered there was a cliff and rocks there. Gerard swam to there and Sergio followed. They reached the small beach, hiding behind one of those rocks. They were steadying his breath. They were in the water for a pretty long time. They stayed there in silence, until a helicopter flew pass them. Gerard smiled.

“Whoa, he let you go?” Sergio couldn’t believe it.

“He probably thinks I’m dead.” Gerard was glad. He couldn’t believe he didn’t think that this was the chance for him to get away earlier. He let out a hysterical laugh.

“What’s so funny?”

“If I _am_ dead I can have a whole new different life.” Gerard smiled as if imagining it.

_No, don’t die,_ but Sergio wanted to see whatever it was that made Gerard smile like that, “Well, now that you’re dead, I’m here as the angle, guardian of paradise, will get you a new life.”

Gerard laughed at that. “You? An angle?” Sergio pouted and was about to give a defensive remark, but then Gerard turned to face him and smiled, “But I guess I’ll take the chance of a new life.”

And Sergio knew he would live a million lives, died a million times, just to live that one. “So what are we gonna do?”

“Nothing. Just run away and leave all of this.”

“Don’t leave.” It came out as a spontaneous response. Sergio couldn’t take that back. When Gerard looked at him, he couldn’t hold it back anymore, he burst out, “Don’t you fucking leave! I know! I know you plan of leaving!”

Gerard looked at him sadly, “Sese…” He didn’t think anyone would care or disapprove if they knew he’s leaving, but he never meant to leave anyone, not Sergio.

“Don’t _Sese_ me!” Sergio snapped, cutting him off.

Gerard just asked him quietly, “How do you know?”

“I was there.” Sergio told him. “I was there when the professors and your parents were discussing about you and your fucking legacy and how many parties were against you trying to take it—damn, Gerard, why you’re making so many enemies?!” when Gerard was about to answer, Sergio stop him, “They’re talking how it will threaten you if it ever got to the wrong hand. They can try to take it for you, making sure it won’t fall into the wrong hand, but that fucking legacy is a series of clues leading to no-one-knows what, so, instead, they’re just planning to take you out of the university, making sure you’re safe. And I heard you’re not even planning to make the search of your legacy as your mission in The D.I.V.E. Games. So, despite Raúl’s initial disapproval out of Guti’s ambition to win the game, I persuaded my team to go after the legacy. All of this,” Sergio gestured, “All of this for you.”

“Why?”

“Fuck if I know why!” Sergio expressed it in anger. He’s trying hard so hold back the tears forming in his eyes. “People come and leave, Gerard. But I can’t imagine a life without you.” It was hard to understand their relationship. Iker had always told him they were after each other’s neck because they couldn’t leave each other alone. Sergio wouldn’t have admitted it, but now he thought it might be true.

“I thought you hated me.”

“I never hate you, Gerard.” Sergio smile sadly at him, “Never could.” He knew this was true, no matter how bad Gerard riled him up, and drove him nuts, he had always had a soft spot for him, never able to bring himself to hate him. Sergio searched for Gerard’s eyes, those blues that drowned him so deep, “Don’t let them win, Ger. Fight after the legacy.”

Gerard never thought anyone would care and fight for him while it felt like the whole world was against him just because of the legacy, he just wanted to give up on the legacy, but now he knew there’s someone who would fight it for him, of course his team had been doing that, but this was _Sergio_. They stay quiet for a while until Gerard broke the silence, “In that case we still have to get what’s in here.” Gerard held out the stick he fetched from the sea. “We’re probably gonna need some back up from our teams, so I’m gonna call them later.” Gerard ran his gaze up and down Sergio, sending shivers down Sergio’s spine. It was as if he was just realizing the state Sergio was in, “But first, we need to get you some clothes.” Gerard looked again, “What kind of underwear is that?!”

“Not everyone got their self-branded underwear.” Sergio then gave him a coy look, “But still it catches your attention.”

“It’s very conspicuous!” Gerard pointed out.

“I’m not going to give you a classy underwear model sight here, I’ll never wear your boyfriend’s underwear, get used to it.”

“He’s not my boyfriend anymore.”

_Oh shit, he forgot they’ve broken up._ “Sorry,”

“Don’t be.”

 


	8. Me Enamoré

“Is it even okay to walk around almost naked here?” Sergio asked as Gerard dragging him into a mall.

“It’s not like you’re the shy type.” Gerard was still holding Sergio’s hand, dragging him around the mall trying to remember where the clothing section was. Everyone was looking at them, cross that, _Sergio_ , weirdly. _Probably because the ridiculously conspicuous underwear._ Alright, maybe they’re looking at him too since Gerard was still soaked wet and the clothes were pressing his body leaving nothing to imagination.

They’re walking passing a large mirror and Sergio smirked at his reflection, and Gerard’s, and of those who were staring at him. “I’m very proud of my body, thank you.”

Gerard would never admit it, but one of the reasons why he kept Sergio behind him while he’s leading the way, was the fact that Sergio was distracting. If Sergio walked in front of him Gerard would probably be caught staring at those tattoos on his back.

They reached an escalator and it might be unlikely, but Gerard wouldn’t risk Sergio got electrocuted for stepping onto the escalator with wet feet, so he swept Sergio off his feet and led him up the escalator. Now more eyes looking at them.

“Why are you carrying me like a sack?” Sergio wanted to say like a bride but decided against it at the last second. He didn’t seem to mind being carried though, just put his arms Gerard’s neck.

“Because you’re wet.” _Damn that sounds wrong, and now Sergio’s grinning at him._

“You keep me wet,” Sergio tried to get some reaction from Gerard, but Gerard seemed unaffected, stubbornly looking ahead. Sergio pouted at his fail attempt. When they got to the upper floor Gerard didn’t drop him right away, and Sergio was enjoying the free lift. “Hey,” Sergio tugged his hand, pointing at one of the stores. “How about that one, seems like they have nice clothing.”

Gerard looked at the stores and the clothing on display, _not bad_. “Alright,” he brought Sergio inside.

Sergio had been trying dozens of clothes on the store, asking Gerard to check him out each time. Gerard felt like a pathetic husband accompanying his wife to shop. Even his clothes started to dry up. Sergio finally walked out of the fitting room for the Gerard-lost-count-what-number-this-was time. Gerard eyes lighted up though, this one was distinctively nice.

Sergio seemed to notice that, he straddled Gerard on the seat, whispered seductively, “I think I’ll take this one if it got your reaction like that.” He pulled off, “Why don’t you take some for yourself?”

Gerard considered it. Even though his clothes had been drying, he would need some more later. He checked out the rows of clothes and took some pairs. Sergio chose some for him too. After trying out so many, Gerard finally came out of the fitting room in one of Sergio’s choices, “This one looks bad on me.”

That’s not what Sergio’s eyes told him. To Sergio the suit looks perfect on Gerard. He smiled and looked so satisfied with his choice, he walked towards Gerard, tugging the collar, humming, “You should wear white more often, it suits you.”

“So which ones we’re gonna take?” Gerard looked at the pile of clothes they had been trying.

“Why don’t take them all?” Sergio started to put the clothes on the shopping bag.

Then Gerard remembered something. “The university doesn’t cover fashion shopping, Sergio. How are we—”

Sergio shushed him, “Oh, please. You don’t think we’re gonna buy these, do you?”

Gerard noticed that as putting the clothes into the bag, Sergio had been pulling out the anti-theft tags. _How on earth does he do that? When did he get the detacher?_ Sergio seemed to read his mind because he then said, “What? You don’t pay attention to deception class and the art of stealing gracefully? I guess you only pay attention in politics and provocation class.”

When all the clothes are inside the bag, Gerard asked dumbly, “Why aren’t you wearing one of them?” _it’s distracting, you know?_

“Because they will notice,” Sergio argued. The truth was he’s too lazy to get into the fitting room and he’s enjoying Gerard’s reaction around him walking around naked.

“Alright, how do we hide that?”

Sergio raised an eyebrow and gave him a coquettish smile, “This body?”

“No, that bag, you narcissistic idiot.”

Sergio looked around, it was an open way, really. “Just walk and remain unnoticed,” he started to walk out the store.

Gerard followed him, trying to look as casual as possible. He’s covering the sight of the bag from the salespersons. The alarm didn’t go off. But someone noticed them, “Hey!” a salesgirl called out. She approached them, “You’re sure, you don’t want any you’ve tried? I think they suit you.” She’s eyeing Sergio in a way that made Gerard want to hide Sergio out of her sight. “And don’t you need some clothes?” she asked Sergio.

“I’m pretty comfortable wearing only this.” Sergio grinned.

“Oh, I see,” she’s gazing Sergio up and down again and Gerard was so close to pierce her eyes. Then she saw the bag Sergio had been hiding behind Gerard. “Excuse me,” she reached out for the bag.

Panicked, Gerard pushed Sergio, “Run! Run!”

“Hey, come back!” she ran after them. “Thefts! Stop them!”

Someone in front of them try to snatch the bag from Sergio’s hand but Sergio swung it to Gerard who with his height, easily beat someone else who’s trying to catch it too. Gerard ran fast to an escalator the lower floor, while Sergio jumped onto the escalator _leading to the floor they’re on._ Sergio didn’t seem to realize that until he landed and feel the escalator move, bringing him towards an angry shop owner. Meanwhile another person had chased Gerard and running down the escalator. Gerard threw the bag to Sergio who’s running down the escalator in opposite direction, “Sergio, catch!”

Sergio failed to catch it and the bag was rolling down, leaving some clothes out in its way. Sergio quickly picked the falling clothes and tried to put them on. He’s feeling he’s doing an acrobat right now. Running in the opposite direction of the escalator while putting clothes on, someone was stupid enough to get to the escalator he was on and running towards him, shouting at people on the lower floor, “Get the bag! It’s stolen!” _Alright, maybe not that stupid, Sergio thought._ Gerard had slid off the escalator handle and snatched the bag in the way.

Gerard jumped on the floor. “Gerard, wait!” Sergio finished wearing the pants, _who cares about mismatched buttons on the shirts._ The person behind him almost reached him and someone else from the lower floor was about to get to the escalator to get him Gerard grabbed the guy by the collars and pushed him aside.

“Jump, Sergio!”

“What?!”

“Jump! I’ll catch you!”

 _That’s a long jump._ He ran faster to minimize the distance between him and Gerard then jumped into Gerard’s arms. “Hold the bag,” Gerard instructed and ran, carrying him outside. “Act like you’re sick.” Before more people told more people to stop them, Gerard running carrying Sergio, “Step away! He’s sick! I need to bring him to hospital quickly! Step away!” They finally managed to get away but suddenly in front of them there was a concert held. People were blocking their way. “Where the fuck all of this came from?! There’s nothing here a few hours ago!”

“Any volunteer?” the singer asked in the middle of the song. “I need someone to get on stage, who might that be?”

“That’s our chance!” Gerard pushed through the crowd, still carrying Sergio. “I volunteer!” But it seemed like they didn’t catch the singer’s attention.

“I’m looking for someone who really wants to get on this stage with me.”

“Act like you do, Gerard!” Sergio shouted at him. He didn’t anticipate it when Gerard swing him over his shoulder, suddenly he’s above everyone else. Gerard _was_ tall, and he himself was only a few inches shorter than Gerard so when Gerard put him over his shoulder, he clearly caught the singer attention, that was when he saw who the singer was. But he was too stunned to act like he really wanted to get on the stage, “Oh my God.”

Meanwhile Gerard was jumping enthusiastically trying to push his way through.

“Yeah, why don’t you two come up here?” she pointed at Sergio. Sergio was too dumbstruck and just look at her.

“Sergio, does she mean us?” Gerard asked. He clearly couldn’t see since there were too many people blocking his sight. “Sergio!” but everyone started to open the way for him to get to the stage and Gerard knew she was referring to them.

Sergio heard something. He turned his head around and saw those people chasing them had made their way to the crowd. “Gerard! They’re here!”

Gerard quickly ran towards the stage he put Sergio down there first. Sergio quickly ran to the other side of the stage to get away. But Gerard was stopped before he had the chance to get away. The singer continued the song and grabbed his hands, shaking her ass on his hips, and he couldn’t help but moved with the music and _that’s_ when he realized who it was. _The music, the voice, the moves, it was unmistakable._ He could hear Sergio shouting at him to get away, and he could hear someone from the crowd cried out to catch him, but all that was just the sound in a background. She turned to him, smiling, and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. He was stunned for a good ten seconds which frustrated Sergio.

Sergio swing across the stage with a rope and grabbed Gerard on the way. They landed on the other side of the stage, jumped off and ran away.

They quickly ran from the crowd, Sergio still carrying the bag of clothes they stole. Gerard still couldn’t believe what had just happened. “Shakira! Shakira, man! Shakira kissed me!”

They had only made it a few meters away from the concert when they’re stuck in the middle of a bullfight. Now Gerard was totally confused. The concert was okay, but who the hell held a bullfight in Catalonia? What year is it now? Is it even allowed now? Where did they get the bull from? Even a bullring had turned into a shopping mall. Is it all set up for them because they had stolen the clothes? So instead of chasing them these people get a bull to get them? Then he remembered Sergio seemed to love bullfighting so much. “Hey, you have any idea how to get us out of here alive?”

Sergio was looking straight at the bull who seemed to be about attacking them. He looked like a bull himself, Gerard thought. “Umm.. no, not really,” Sergio said, still looking straight.

To Gerard, the bull was looking at them with such a rage, “Well, you’re planning to kill the bull with your death glare forever or do you have any better idea?”

Sergio finally stopped staring at the bull and turned his head at Gerard, “I don’t know! It’s not like you have a better idea either!”

“That’s exactly why I asked!” Gerard shrieked as he saw the bull running in their way. He and Sergio ran in the opposite ways. The universe must have hated him so much, because the bull went after him instead of Sergio. “Where the hell is the matador?!” He ran as fast as he could as if his life depended on it, maybe it did. “Sergio! Do something!”

“What am I supposed to do?!” Sergio ran at the other side of the ring.

“I don’t know! You’re the one who wants to be a bullfighter!” Now Gerard was running towards Sergio which was probably a bad idea because it would mean the bull would chase them both.

“Where did you know that?” Sergio turned around as soon as he saw the bull running at his direction after Gerard.

“Everybody knows!” Gerard caught up with him. He snatched the shopping bag from Sergio’s hand, looking inside for something.

“What are you looking for?!” Sergio looked back at the bull, “You better be looking out for your life right now!”

“Something red!” Gerard answered as he’s still searching through the bag.

“We bought nothing red!” Sergio said through his breath.

“ _Bought?_ ” Gerard repeated the word in disbelief. “We got here because we’ve _stolen_ the clothes!”

“Look, the red is a myth, it doesn’t provoke the bull, it’s the movement of the muleta that provokes the attack!” Sergio then realized something and stopped his lecture, “Why are you looking for red cloth?!”

Instead of answering that, Gerard pulled out one of the shirts from the shopping ball, “Pink would do then?”

Sergio tried to run faster as the bull was getting closer, “It doesn’t matter! the bull is colour blind!”

“What?!”

“The bull is colour blind!” Sergio repeated, shouting through the loudness of crowd and wind. “The reason why we use red is to make the blood less noticeable!”

“What?!” That sounded horrible to Gerard, “You people are sick!” he’s rumpling the pink shirt in his hand, “This is why we don’t do bullfighting in Barcelona!”

“Don’t you ruin my shirt!”

“Sergio, first, this is not your shirt, you stole it!” Gerard kept his pace even though he wouldn’t look back to see if the bull was getting closer, “second, our lives are threatened, and you worry about this shirt more than your life, third, what you people do to the bulls is way much worse than all the things I can do to the shirt!”

Sergio glanced back, the bull is getting nearer, and he was the one who was getting exhausted, not the bull. And he really couldn’t understand Gerard, one second he asked him to save him, the next second he defended the bull, what if Sergio had to kill the bull for saving his life? “We’ll talk about our differences in values later, alright?!” Sergio grabbed Gerard’s hand and dragged him aside, so the bull ran past them, and when it did, Sergio made the jump, pulling Gerard with him to ride the bull.

Gerard was too surprise to process what had just happened, “How did we get here?!” the bull was moving around like crazy now, and it’s getting hard to hold on, he held Sergio for dear life as the Sergio holding tight onto the bull.

Suddenly, the something buzzed in Gerard’s pocket. He searched inside and pulled out the stick he took from the sea earlier. It’s buzzing and shining, then a voice came from it.

Sergio turned his head sharply to see where’s the voice of a girl speaking in a weird tongue came from. “What is that?”

“Sssh, I’m trying to listen!” Gerard covered Sergio’s back with his body, leaning forward to keep more balance as the bull moved wilder.

“And what does it say? You can understand it? Because she speaks weirdly.”

“It’s Catalan.” Gerard sounded annoyed.

“Well, tell her to speak in Andalusian!” Sergio snatched the stick, “In Andalusian!” but as if mocking him, the stick shut down in his hand.

Gerard took the stick from him and gave him a look, “Andalusian is not a language.” But then he told Sergio, “She said something about the next clue, how we’ll find something, and we just have to ‘ _let it enlighten you and it will show you the way,’_ ”

Sergio rolled his eyes at the way Gerard said it. “Yeah, if we could made our way out of here.” He turned to the stick, “Can’t she show us the way out of here?”

Sergio could hear Gerard was trying something before he finally said, “No, she can’t. I don’t think so.”

“Hey, Gerard, what if we give ourselves some motivation to get out of here?” Sergio asked as he tried his best not to fall, his grip had been getting loosened by each second.

“Our lives are not enough motivation?”

“This situation has showed us what our differences can do in such situation, and it’s not really good if we’re going to have more of it.”

“I really hope this is the worst situation we will ever be in.” Gerard pressed his body on Sergio harder and held on the bull tighter. He felt like they’re going to fall any minute.

“Look, if we get out of here, I’ll take you to a flamenco show.”

Without thinking, Gerard let go his hands from the grip for the sake of a gesture, “What the hell kind of a motivation is that?! I’d rather die here than watch a flamenco show with you!” that gesture only sent him off the bull when the bull moved, and Gerard regretted his words right away. “I’ll watch flamenco show with you! Right now! Everyday! Whatever!”

Sergio didn’t have the time to get satisfied with Gerard’s words. If the situation was different, maybe he would take some time for it. But now, he let go of his grip, sending himself falling to the ground next to Gerard, they both got up right away, and ran, “If you take me to flamenco show then I’ll teach you Catalan!” Gerard shouted as they’re running fast from the bull.

Sergio saw the matador, he gestured wildly, “Hey! Take care of the bull, would you?!”

Gerard panicked, “What do you mean ‘take care’? Kill it?”

“It almost killed you!” The matador was trying to tell them something. “Oh my God, he thought we’re another matadors.”

“What the fuck?! Do I look like a matador?” Gerard was offended.

The matador showed them a way out, “Look! A way out! That’s it! Go! Go! Go!”

They ran as faster to go out and get away.

 

 

After Cesc fell of the jet ski, which getting him sulking the whole day, and Isco caught spent the time swimming for fun instead of actually looking for Sergio—because he couldn’t find him after trying for a few minutes, Iker and Xavi came to an agreement for provisional corporation. After a great effort of mediating both team in a hot debate, they all finally decided to join forces.

“I know where they are!” Arbeloa announced, he shouted to make sure those on the other ship hear it too.

“How do you know?” Cesc asked curiously from the other ship.

“Twitter,” Xabi guessed, by the lack of response from Arbeloa he knew he was right. “They must be making a wild headline on twitter.” He imagined all the mess Gerard and Sergio could possibly do that would make twitter on fire. However, when it came to Gerard, that wasn’t the first thing that came to everyone else’s mind.

“Gerard’s still tweeting in a situation like this?” Andres asked in disbelief.

“Of course, he is,” Leo would be surprise if that was the case.

“You follow Gerard on twitter?” Marc asked Arbeloa out of curiosity.

“Why are you asking the stupid questions instead of the most important one?” Iker lost his patience, “Where are they?”

 

Hotel W Barcelona

 

After the long day, they decided to stay in a hotel for a night. Gerard wanted a new life, and Sergio was more than happy to explore one with him, even just for a night.

“Geri! They’ve got swimming pool!” Sergio said enthusiastically, he grabbed Gerard’s hand, leading him to the swimming pool on the rooftop. The lamps at the swimming pool started to switch on. The sun was setting and there was no one else but them. The lights in the swimming pool created beautiful reflection on water. _It’s romantic_. Sergio quickly shook the thought off. He took off his ~~brand new,~~ stolen shirt, and threw them at Gerard’s face. Sergio nudged at Gerard’s side, “Come on, take it off, you’ll get soaking wet again.”

“Who says I want to swim?” Gerard raised his eyebrows, “or do you just want to get me naked?”

“I know you want to,” Sergio slid off his pants and chuckled, “get naked,” and because it would be too obvious, he added, “and swim.” Sergio ran and jumped into the pool, cannon ball style, water splashed at Gerard, making his clothes wet. Sergio came up to the surface, laughing at Gerard.

“Well, seems like I got no choice, now,” Gerard took off his clothes and jumped into the swimming pool. He chased Sergio who was now trying to swim as fast as he could.

They ordered champagne to shoot at each other and into the pool. They were swimming in the pool of champagne and drink from it, laughing and fooling around. When the night started getting colder and their skin started to get wrinkled, Sergio jumped onto Gerard’s back, legs wrapped around his waist, whispering at his ear, “Carry me to our room.” Sergio’s breath was tickling his ear and neck, making him laugh. Gerard slapped Sergio’s hip lightly but obeyed as he got out of the pool with Sergio still clinging on his back. Sergio felt much lighter in water, when they got out of the water Gerard almost stumbled before he adjusted to the weight. He bent to pick up their clothes then held Sergio’s hips up tighter to his waist and carry him to their room.

When they got into their room Gerard laid Sergio down into the bed gently, “Shower would you?”

“No,” Sergio mumbled into the pillow. Gerard shrugged, he looked for a towel to dry himself, and threw one at Sergio who just let it lay on his back. “I’m hungry, let’s order some food.”

 

No matter how hungry they were, in the end they used up more food for a food war than actually eating. Not that they let the food to go waste. Sergio slurped the spaghetti dangling from his hair while throwing strawberries at Gerard who was sitting on the bed. Gerard tried to dodge to no avail, Sergio laughed at him. When he ran out of strawberries and Gerard started eating the strawberries around him he crawled up into the bed, closer to Gerard, there was a strawberry stuck at Gerard’s ear, Sergio brought his mouth close to the ear, and without warning, closed his mouth around it and sucked in the strawberry into his mouth, Gerard yelped at the sensation, eyes went wide, he looked scandalized.

Sergio rolled in the bed, laughing so hard at the reaction. Gerard smacked him with a pillow, “Fuck you.” He stood up and took one more strawberry into his mouth before heading to the bathroom.

Gerard really needed that cold shower to calm himself down after what Sergio had done. _Damn, Sergio._ Gerard stood in the rush of cold water, trying to wash away the thought of Sergio’s tongue in his ear, and that lewd sound he made.

A few minutes later, Sergio was lying in the bed while Gerard still taking a shower. Sergio was still annoyed because Gerard wouldn’t stop bragging about being kissed by Shakira, one of the reasons the food war started. That guy was still over the moon. He almost got them caught and didn’t even seem sorry about it. Sergio thought he should have just leave Gerard with his precious Shakira, _then let him get in prison for stealing clothes for you._ Sergio quickly shook the thoughts away. Sergio could hear Gerard singing in the bathroom. _He’s singing Waka-Waka_ , _damn it. He can’t even sing._ Being an ass that he was, Sergio sang loudly, making sure Gerard heard it from the bathroom, “ _Me enamoré, me ena-na-namoré_!!” He saw a guitar in the corner of the room. _Nice, even the hotel supplied him with musical instruments_. He took the guitar and started playing it, singing so loud at the bathroom door until Gerard finally stopped singing.

The bathroom door’s opened and Gerard looked totally annoyed. When he saw that Gerard was about to attack him, Sergio ran, Gerard chased him, they’re knocking some plants and lamps to the ground. Gerard caught his sleeve, but Sergio got away and jumped onto a drawer. Gerard reached out to grab him Sergio freaked out and lost his balance he stumbled to the floor, the drawer wasn’t strong enough to remain standing and crashed to the floor with him. Sergio quickly got up and hid under the table. They’re playing cat and mouse until the whole hotel room looked like it had been hit by an earthquake. They threw themselves into the bed, catching their breath. “Fuck you, now I’m sweaty again,” Gerard said.

 _I love getting you all sweaty,_ Sergio wanted to say but restrained, he chuckled, “You don’t smell that bad.”

“You do, though. Won’t you take a shower?”

“No,” Sergio refused stubbornly.

“There’s only one bed in this room since all the room with double bed is booked, if you’re going to sleep with me you better take a shower!”

Sergio tried so hard to ignore the _sleep with me_ part. _He didn’t mean it like that,_ he told himself. “Make me,” he challenged.

Gerard got up from the bed and out of the room. Sergio didn’t know what was coming, and he certainly didn’t expect a large amount of foam shot at him.  He was surprised, his mouth was opened which allowed the foam into his mouth. Sat up and see that Gerard was holding the fire extinguisher directed at him. “You’re wasting it! What if there’s real fire.”

 _The only fire here is this fire inside for you._ “Shower, Sergio.”

“I want bubble bath.” Sergio pouted.

“How old are you?!” but Gerard walked into the bathroom and prepared a bubble bath. He started playing with the soap and shower puff too. He didn’t even realize the bubbles got so many and started to overflow all the way to the bedroom until Sergio called him, “Gerard…” then he got an idea. He let the bubbles overflowed and he even added some more soap to the bathtub. He poured more soap into the shower puffed. He walked out from the bathroom.

“You’re not gonna fill this whole room with bubbles, are you?” Sergio sat up in the bed leaning against headboard.

Without warning Gerard carried Sergio off the bed to the bathroom. Sergio was wriggling in his arms, “Put me down!”

“Oh I am,” Gerard said as he’s putting Sergio into the bathtub.

“No, no, no!” Sergio tightened his arms around Gerard’s neck and his legs around Gerard’s waist. “Gerard! This is brand new!” he’s referring to the clothes.

“Oh, we can always steal some more,” Gerard finally succeed in getting Sergio into the bathtub, covered in bubbles. “Besides, don’t you think you need to wash it first?” He attacked Sergio with the foam from the shower puff and Sergio attacked him with the bubbles.

Sergio pulled him into the bathtub. Gerard tried to resist, but Sergio was stronger. He laughed in victory when Gerard plunged into the bathtub, his bathrobe with his bathrobe still on, absorbing the water. His laughter only got lounder when Gerard looked up, his face and hair covered in bubbles. Gerard laughed with him.

After their fingertips became wrinkled, and the water started to get too cold. They dried themselves up and jumped into the bed. They had tired each other out. Sergio snuggled closer to Gerard and Gerard put his arms around him. Gerard kissed his temple, “Goodnight, Sese.”

Sergio was not sure if he was already dreaming.

 

 

Sergio woke up with drop of ice cold water dripping onto his head. He blinked and found Gerard grinning at him from above. Water still dripping. He swept it off his voice then suddenly a cold sensation burnt his neck, making him squeal, “Gerard!”

Gerard laughed out loud.

Sergio sat up and threw a pillow at Gerard’s face. The laughter only got louder, and he got the pillow back thrown at his face. They started a pillow fight and finally fell exhausted into the bed, still chuckling. “Hey, Sergio,”

“Yeah?”

“The song you were singing yesterday…”

“Hmm?”

“It’s not a flamenco.”

Sergio turned his head at Gerard, “You seriously think I only know flamenco?” _I purposely made it not flamenco because you don’t like it._

“You’re the one who keep singing flamenco like crazy!”

“You’re the one singing in the bathroom like crazy!” Sergio accused.

Gerard’s eyes went bemused again. “I still can’t believe she kissed me.”

Sergio rolled his eyes. This was what got him so pissed off with Gerard yesterday. He got up from the bed and took the guitar. He started dancing around and singing the song he sang yesterday, “ _Bailé y me ena-na-namoré, nos enamoramos,_ " Gerard was watching him from the bed, smiling. Sergio crawled into the bed like a predator stalking his prey, “ _Mira que cosa bonita,_ ” Gerard tensed up, his eyes went wide, Sergio’s hovering above Gerard, “ _Que boca más redondita,_ ” Sergio held his chin up, thumb running over the beard, “ _Me gusta esa barbita._ ” Sergio leaned down to whisper at his ear, “You like blond singers with nice hips?”

Gerard grabbed his ass and whispered back, “And nice ass too.” Sergio was straddling him, rubbing his ass on Gerard’s crotch. Gerard took the bathrobe off Sergio and threw it to the floor. Sergio leaned down and Gerard captured his lips in a searing kiss. The kiss soon became open-mouthed, tongues exploring each other, taking each other’s breath.

Sergio started kissing Gerard’s neck, hands roaming, revealing the skin under the bathrobe. Then intertwined their fingers and brought their hands above Gerard’s head. Sergio started kissing the neck lips sucking on the skin. He travelled the kiss to the inner arm, nuzzled against it, making Gerard laugh in ticklish. He kissed his way down from the pectorals to the stomach and stopped when he reached Gerard’s waist and looked up, eyes meeting Gerard’s blue ones. He untied the bathrobe and revealed what’s under there. Sergio inhaled. He leaned down and breathed against Gerard’s cock, admiring it, the he licked it before nibbling the head, tasting it in his mouth. He took it deeper and swirling his tongue. Gerard was moaning above him, hands reached out to grab Sergio’s hair. Sergio sucked harder and moaned around it, hands wrapping around the part he couldn’t fit into his mouth.

Gerard pulled him off, “Sese…” Sergio crawled up, Gerard was out of breath. He touched Sergio’s face and pulled him down for a slow soft kiss. Gerard moved them around, so he was on top. He trailed the tattoos on Sergio’s arm, as he’s kissing the hair that started growing on then lower cheeks to chin on Sergio’s face. “Hmm…” he mumbled against the skin, “keep this, I love this.” He’s kissing the chest, licking and sucking the nipples, making Sergio whimper. Gerard traced the tattoo on the side of Sergio’s abdomen. He kissed his way down from there, until he reached an eagle tattoo on the pelvic. He locked his eyes with Sergio before tracing it with his tongue, making Sergio writhing in pleasure and frustration as Gerard completely ignoring the lower part. “Gerard, please,” he whimpered.

Gerard only smirked and let exhaled around the shaft, making Sergio bucking his hips in frustration, but Gerard held it down. Gerard licked the shaft from the tip down to the root, then swirled his tongue around the balls. Sergio moaned, spreading his legs and lifted them up. Gerard’s beard was tickling his ass and when he blew into his hole and Sergio’s breath got louder. He started giving light kisses on the tight muscles, only licked around it between the kisses and Sergio was growing desperate. And then he felt something cold forcing its way inside him, he hissed in half pain, half pleasure, “What the fuck, Gerard!” Gerard chuckled and removed the ice, and then there was something else, something round going inside him, “Geri, what is that?” but instead of answering, Gerard ravished him inside, licking and sucking that something out of him, pressing his tongue at Sergio’s prostrate, exploring inside. Sergio was keening with overstimulation, talking non-sense, moaning, and writhing, Gerard was sucking his soul out of him. “What is that, Gerard?”

“Breakfast,” Gerard chuckled. “Blueberries.” _This is revenge for your strawberry yesterday._

Sergio whimpered. Gerard continued eating him out. Sergio gripped the base of his dick, he’s not gonna last long if Gerard kept doing this. The sounds Gerard was making was raunchy to Sergio’s ear, and Sergio’s moans only worsen it. “Geri, I—” Sergio grabbed him by the hair, “Stop.”

Gerard crawled up, a worried look on his face, “You want to stop this?”

“No, no, no!” Sergio put his hand on Gerard’s neck and pulled him down to kiss him, tasting some of the blueberries, “Want you inside me, fuck me,” he whispered against Gerard’s lips. When Gerard was about to pull away to do it Sergio changed his mind and pulled him back, “No, make love to me,” he said against Gerard’s lips before kissing them again, Gerard made a sound between the kiss. “Be gentle with me, please.” he asked.

“Yes,” Gerard breathed out. He put his fingers against Sergio’s lips and Sergio enthusiastically took them in his mouth, making them all wet. After Sergio’s done Gerard touched his opening gently, massaging it until the muscles started to loosen. Then he pressed a finger inside, and Sergio moaned in pleasure. He added another finger and started scissoring Sergio open. He added the third finger and massaged the prostrate, making Sergio whimpering and writhing. “You’re ready?” Sergio only nodded in assent, nothing could come out of his mouth but moans and heavy breathing right now.

Gerard pulled out his fingers and aligned the head of his cock against Sergio’s hole and slowly pushing in. Sergio whined in pain, and Gerard stopped his movement, “You’re okay?”

Sergio nodded, and Gerard pushed deeper slowly until he’s fully inside. He let Sergio adjusting to the intrusion while savouring the feeling of being inside Sergio. “Good?”

Sergio never had anyone spread him like that. It’s burning, and it hurt more than he’s used to. “Yeah, move.” Gerard started to move, giving deep, slow thrusts, brushing all the right nerves inside him. Gerard was kissing him softly until the rest of the world disappeared and the pain turned into sacrilegious undying pleasure. “Faster,” Sergio begged, “Harder.”

“I thought you want it slow and gentle?” Gerard teased.

But after Sergio moaning and begging hekissed him on the mouth and pulled almost all the way out, before slamming deep and hard, making Sergio cried in pleasure, “Again,” he breathed out. Gerard did that again, and again, the pace was getting faster, and Sergio started talking nonsense, he was close—

Suddenly a phone was ringing on the drawer beside the bed, and Gerard stopped his movement. “Oh, come on!” Sergio complained. “You’re not gonna pick up a call in the middle of this!” But Gerard did, _that fucking prick._

“Yeah?” Gerard answered the phone. “Umm, yeah, I’ll send you the address.”

“Gerard,” Sergio was getting impatience and moving his hips.

“—the clue, yes.”

“Gerard!” Sergio griped.

“Shut up!” Gerard slapped Sergio’s ass.

And Sergio moaned.

Gerard froze there. He wasn’t even listening to the caller anymore. “Look, I’ll call you later, I’m busy.” Gerard threw the phone back on the drawer carelessly.

Sergio only now seemed to realize what had just happened, he felt blood started running to his face and suddenly Gerard slapped his ass again, and he moaned again. _That was unexpected_. Then he felt something else, “Did you just—” he tried to make sure of it again before asking, “got harder?”

“Fuck yeah,” Gerard leaned down and kissed him hard and Sergio moaned into the kiss. He started to move even harder and faster, each thrust hitting the right spot. “Sese, you feel so good— ” he moaned.

“You too,” Sergio gasped.

Then suddenly there’s a sound of gunshot outside their room. They turned their heads towards the door. The bullets were making holes in their doors. Gerard tried to reach the drawer beside the table, he moved closer to the drawer, bringing Sergio with him who was protesting. Gerard pulled out a gun from the drawer.

Sergio eyes went wide at the gun, “Whoa! I don’t know you’re the type using that!”

“I am not,” Gerard loaded the gun, more shot at their door, it wouldn’t take long to open. “But Charles had made me learn how to use it, and he had forced me to bring this since he can’t come to the game this year. Now at least we know this is useful.”

Sergio looked up at him, “You’re not gonna pull out or something?”

Then the door’s opened some men rushed in, but Gerard quickly shot them until they fell down, lying on the floor. Gerard turned to him, “Nobody interrupts my love making, baby.” He flexed his bicep as he reloaded the gun, “Let me show you my gun,” he winked before shooting other men who came to their room. Sergio didn’t even realize more people were coming. And it might sound wrong, but Gerard refusing to stop their love making and shooting people who tried to stop it was turning him on.

Gerard shot another man and leaned down to cover Sergio as they were shot back. He straightened up and pulled Sergio close to his chest as he kept shooting more men coming through their door. Gerard rolled their body down the bed and hid behind it as he made more shots. “Who are these people?!” Sergio asked through the sound of gun shots. He’s lying on the floor behind the bed.

“I don’t know exactly which is which. But they all are trying to kill me!” Gerard straightened up again and shot another man. He leaned back down again to Sergio, “Don’t worry, I’ll keep you safe.”

“No, don’t say that!”

“What?” Gerard was confused. He could hear someone was coming but Sergio was faster. He sat up and took a vase on the drawer and threw it at that someone’s head.

“Don’t say anything you can’t keep! There’s nothing ever going to be safe when it comes to you!” Gerard was about to say something back, but Sergio preceded, “I’ll never be safe as long as I’m with you, and that’s okay!” Sergio threw another furniture at another intruder. “I choose to be with you!”

Gerard smiled at him. He shot another man who tried to shoot them as he slammed into Sergio, surprising and pushing out curses and moan of pleasure. “Shit, Gerard!—Oh, that feels good—Oh!—Are you keep shooting these men while doing this to me?!—Oh!—Yes! You got him!—Yes! Right there!—ah!”

The shooting finally stopped no one came to their door anymore, and Gerard was thrusting harder and faster. Sergio was so close, and he was about to come—suddenly Gerard wrapped the base of his cock tightly. “You’re not allowed come until the ninety third minute,” Gerard gritted through his ear.

“You remember that?!” Sergio groaned in disbelief and frustration. He couldn’t believe Gerard turned his joke on him like this. But it was only turning him on even more, bringing him closer, but Gerard would let go his grip.

Gerard kept torturing him with his overstimulating thrusts and grip that was holding him back. “Sure I remember, thought you might like it.”

 _He does like it._ “Geri, please—” he’s begging as Gerard pushed deeper, slamming in the right spot, and Sergio screamed in delight, but Gerard’s hand still gripping tight, and he cried between a plea and pleasure. “Please, Geri, let me go, let me come,” then Gerard let go and Sergio cried in pleasure, moaning Gerard’s name as he reached that cosmic orgasm.

Gerard felt Sergio spasmed around him and he released inside Sergio filling him up screaming in pleasure, Sergio’s name on top of his lungs. He then collapsed on top of Sergio. Sergio wrapped his arms around Gerard’s back, “Stay,” he said. He was implying something more.

They really should be going right now. “I will.”

They’re catching their breaths. They’re covered in sweats—luckily not blood, and there were bodies in their room. Sergio really didn’t want to think about it but he was fully aware of their situation now. He laughed, “And you’re the one who refused to kill a bull. Gerard, you’re a badass.”

“The bull wasn’t interrupting us fucking,” Gerard laughed with him.

 


	9. Museu de Futbol Club Barcelona: Don't Drop It!

“What?! One of you went missing?” Zidane sounded angry on the other side of the line. He’s the one responsible for their team after all.

Cristiano tried to reason, “Not missing, we just…” he tried to come up with the right words but find nothing, “can’t find him.”

“Same thing, Ronaldo.” A pause. “Alright, I’ll send more people.”

Cristiano glanced at the others nervously. He knew bringing more people into the team wasn’t the part of the plan in the first place. “That would be unnecessary.”

“That is not your decision.”

 

David sneaked out from the group after Straw Girl told him to go to the nearest payphone. After debating with himself, he had told Victoria about the university. He didn’t know if he would ever regret his decision or not. The phone rang, he picked up and heard Victoria speaking, “Change plan, wait until they lead us to the final clue and we’ll take them down.” Then the line was off.

He hung up the phone before the phone in his pocket vibrated. “David?” he heard Sergio’s voice from the other side of the line.

“Sergio?”

He heard Sergio sighed in relief, “Thank God, I keep dialing the wrong number trying to reach one of you. Good thing one of you got easy-to-remember phone number.”

“How are you?” he sounded concern before changing completely, “And where on earth have you been?!”

“I’m fine,” Sergio told him. “No, I’m great. I’m with Gerard.”

“Oh,” David didn’t know what to say. “We’re looking for you.” _And by the way, you still haven’t told me about your exact location._ “We’re having a hard time here.”

“Look, I’ll tell you about the next clue and I’ll see you there.”

 

 

Iker heard it. All of it. He had stalked after David when he noticed the guy sneaked out of the group, and he used his device to overhear from a few meters away. And now he didn’t know if he should trust David or not. He heard about Sergio too, and after Sergio hung up he walked towards David, making David jumped in surprise when he saw him, “Iker!”

Iker just looked at him with sharp eyes but didn’t say anything.

David wondered if Iker _knew_. He avoided the subject, there’s something more urgent right now. “Sergio’s just called.”

_I know._

 

 

Once David told them about the clue Sergio had given him, both team rushed to their cars, racing to a museum.

“Faster, Iker! Faster!” Thomas shouted from the back of the car, facing backward, looking at the other’s team car. “They’re coming!”

Iker turned his head, “Why the fuck is he still here?!” he saw that now Thomas is not alone, “And why the cameramen are here too?!”

“No wonder this car is so crumped,” Cristiano grumbled, “We need a new car.”

“Iker, watch out!” Arbeloa slapped him from the shotgun. The other team’s car was trying to cut their lane off.

Iker swerved to the other’s car direction to make them shirk. He opened the window and shouted at the other team, “Get out of my lane!”

Villa, who was driving the other car, swerved back at him, “You fuck off!”

They kept their reckless race, making everyone else in the cars scared to death. David, who was sitting behind Iker tried to calm him down, putting his hands on his shoulder, “Iker, slow down.” But that only got Iker drove faster and maneuvered even more careless.

“Red light!” Guti warned. But both Iker and Villa drove through it, making other cars from other directions stop abruptly, crashing into each other. “Raúl! He’s killing us! Tell him to stop!” Guti shook Raúl by the shoulder, but then someone forced him to bend, “Hey!” he looked up to see feet were hanging from the sunroof to the seat behind him, passing his shoulder. “Whose feet are these?! Get them off!”

“You get the shot from up there Lukas?” Bastian asked from the rear seat.

“Yeah, I got this!”

“Hey, Schweini, you should be filming me! Not his ass!” Thomas protested.

“It’s rather hard to do with his ass in my face, Thomas.”

Thomas moved to get his face before the camera, earning a jolt from Lukas, “What the fuck are you doing down there?!”

Guti was the one who got the most impact from the jolt, and Iker’s maniac driving only made it worse. “Stop this all of you!”

“Brace yourself!” Arbeloa warned from the front seat, but it was too late, Iker hit the brake in a sudden, making all of them crash forward.

When all the curses thrown at Iker, he protested, “Is there any of you who wears seatbelt?”

“Can’t you see there are too many people here to wear seatbelt?!” Cristiano snapped back.

Isco glanced at him, “Cris, you’re wearing a seatbelt.”

“Sssh.”

“We got no time for this! Let’s go!” Iker gestured for all of them to get out of the car as he himself made his way out.

However, from the passenger seat it wasn’t so easy to get out. “Help! I’m stuck at the roof!” Lukas announced before anyone could get out of the car.

“Oh come on!” Iker cursed as he looked at the roof of his car.

“Bye, Casillas! We’re leading!” Villa and the rest of his team ran passed him.

“Schweini, stop tickling my feet!” Lukas protested from on top of the car.

“It’s not me, it’s Thomas!” Bastian defended himself, shouting from the inside of the car, giggling as Thomas tried to tickle the feet again.

“Let go of the camera!” Iker climbed up and tried to get the camera Lukas was holding. “Let it go!” Lukas finally obeyed and slid down into the car with less difficulty. Iker grabbed the camera and climbed down.

Those in the car were still hectic, “The door still locked!” “No it’s not!” “Open it!” “It won’t open!”

Iker rolled his eyes he handed the camera to his brother and opened the passenger door. _Wait, his brother?_ He turned around to see _his brother_ enthusiastically filming with the camera.

“Long time no see, bro! Whoa! What do you got there in your car?” his brother was filming David who was just got out of the car, looking confused at the camera. “A hot bloke?”

“Shut up!” Iker snatched the camera from his brother and handed it back to Lukas who finally made his way out of the car. “What are you doing here, Unai?” he sneered at his brother.

“Visiting my favourite club.” Unai was still eyeing David, “And this is what you’ve been doing?”

Iker slapped his brother.

 

 

Museu de Futbol Club Barcelona

 

“Whoa, you’re breaking in?” Unai followed him.

“Shut up, you can’t say that here!” Iker lowered his voice. “And I still hate you for being a fan of this club.”

“Nah, you love me anyway.” Unai stopped his walk. “And you’re gonna need my help.”

“Why would I?” Iker continued walking, not even looking back.

“What do you think, bro?”

There were a lot of possibilities, or maybe his brother was just bluffing, but that one possibility was just too hard to ignore, and Iker knew his brother. He turned around and walked back to his brother, whispering, “You have broken in here before, haven’t you?” Iker saw the look on his brother, “Oh no, please don’t say you’re a tour guide here.”

“I can do the tour guide for you and your friends—”

“Don’t!” Iker glared. “Just get us in there.”

 

\--

 

“Everything’s cleared up?” Xavi asked through the communicator.

“Yes,” Andres confirmed.

“Alright, David, you’re ready?”

“Yes,” Villa said. “Hey, which cup again?”

“Fuck, they didn’t tell us.” Xavi realized.

“It’s Copa del Rey,” Leo reminded them.

“ _Which_ Copa del Rey?” Villa scanned the displays in the long alley. “They got more than one that’s for sure.”

“All of them?” Luis suggested.

“Yeah, we’re going to sneak more than twenty cups out of this museum,” Villa said sarcastically.

“The real one?” Leo suggested.

“Do they even keep the real one here?” Villa asked.

“Please don’t tell me Gerard got the wrong place again,” Leo facepalmed.

“You know what? We’re going to get all the cups.” He moved towards the displays, with sophisticated skill carefully opened the displays one by one and took the cups inside it. “Hey, how much do you think we’re gonna get if we—” before he could finish, a white ball jumped at him, landing on the floor.

It was more like a robot, in a shape of a ball. It had red lamp in the middle that looked like an eye. It looked rather cute than intimidating like it’s trying to be, Villa thought.

“David, what is that?” Xavi asked him.

Villa still looking at the ball, “A cute little toy.”

“Ooh, can I have it?” Cesc asked.

“Cesc, what the fuck? No!” but Cesc was already there jumping to the floor trying to catch the ball, failing as it swirled away.

Andres ran to them, “It’s a security robot! Stop it!”

“Marc! Go get it!” Rafinha shouted. Marc slid on the floor to catch the robot and crashed into Marc-André who was doing the same. “Not you!”

“A clash between Bartra and Ter-Stegen,” Thomas informed as the cameras filming them, earning a disapproval look from Rafinha and both Marcs. But of course, it didn’t affect him. He pointed at the running ball, “Go get it, guys!” he told Bastian and Lukas.

Cesc ran chasing the robot, which now swirled to a corner. He ran that way and bumped hard into someone, he stumbled back, touching his head in pain.

“Another crash between Casillas and Fabregas—” Thomas started but was stopped by Iker’s death glare.

“Cesc?” Iker looked just as pained.

“I’m sorry,” Cesc ran brushed passed him. Thomas, Bastian, and Lukas followed after him.

Iker turned around to see him chasing the running ball. “What is that?”

Andres came out of the turn where Cesc showed up earlier told him, “It’s a security robot, it’s gonna get us caught.”

“Get him! Get him! Get him, Alvaro!” Isco pushed Morata to block the ball Cesc was chasing. Morata tackled, sending the ball to Marco on the other side, who dribbled the ball.

“ _Nice teamwork!_ ”

But the robot protested, moving from side to side, hitting his feet hard. “Ow!”

“ _Seems like the ball hates you, Asensio._ ”

Marco kicked it back to Isco, who successfully got it before Cesc could. Cesc was having a hard time getting the robot while the tree was kicking it around to each other.

“Try harder, Cesc!” Thomas cheered.

“Cesc?” A familiar voice called him.

He turned around to see his best friend, “Gerard!” Cesc was so happy to see him and Gerard was running toward him, but he pointed at the robot, “Take it from them!”

“ _We got one more playing for our team!_ ”

Gerard tried, but the tree was really good at fooling around, “Oh look, somebody’s trying to get this,” Isco teased. “Marco! Catch!” but just as Gerard turned to Marco he kicked the ball to Morata and jumping around. All of them, including the ball, all their manoeuvre looked like a damn joke.

“ _Nice trick, Isco!_ ”

Cesc and Marc had come to help him, so it was tree on tree, Gerard was on Marco, Cesc on Morata, and Marc on Isco, but still it was to no avail. Gerard knew it sounded ridiculous, but it felt like the ball was running from him.

“Hey, Toni!” Marco kicked the ball to Toni. “Toni!!!” he ran towards him. “What are you doing here?”

“Toni!!!” Thomas got even more excited and pushed Marco aside, “Toni my friend! We miss you!!” Thomas jumped at Toni, followed by the cameramen.

Toni played with the ball on his feet, “Zizou sent me here. He sent some of us.” Overwhelmed by hugs from tree men and the effort of keeping the ball on his feet, he kicked the ball, “Marcelo!” he passed it to Marcelo who was just arrived there.

 _Where the fuck these people came from?_ Gerard wondered.

When Isco turned to him, Marcelo shuddered in horror, “No, no, no! Hug Toni! not me!”

“ _No hugs for Marcelo today._ ”

Gerard was still after the ball, overwhelmed by the style of play.

_“Piqu_ _é is having a hard time, so are Fabregas and Bartra—”_

Gerard was about to lash out at Thomas, but then Xavi called him, “Gerard! Gerard!” gesturing him to come there.

“ _Piqu_ _é is called off the pitch!”_ Thomas shoved him a microphone, _“Any comment, Gerard?_ ”

He walked passed Thomas but gave his comment, “They’re fucking dancing around us, those sonsofbitches.”

 

The robot started to protest and ran from all of them. They’re chasing it, Raúl, Guti, and David showed up from a corner, but backed again when they saw the crowd chasing the ball. “Get the ball!” Marcelo called them.

Guti ran after the ball in an instinct. The ball was attacking him, he dribbled the ball against the wall before passing it to Raúl who now looked like free styling the ball, “Show off,” Guti commented.

“Nice show off!” Thomas encouraged Raúl to keep going.

“I’m not! The ball is moving by itself!” Raúl said as he’s trying not to lose the ball.

“Yeah, sure. The ball hates me so much it attacked me and now it moves in a cool way when it’s with you.”

Raúl gave him a sharp glare, but said nothing. He passed the ball to David who stopped the movement with his foot. All cheered. But then the ball started moving again, David tried to keep it in his foot, but he knew he couldn’t hold for long, he looked up and saw Iker, the guy was very far, but David knew it’s him. “Iker!” he called out, “Catch!” he kicked the ball, all eyes following the ball, which is not moving in a normal trajectory.

“ _What an astounding long shot by Beckham! Look at it! How beautiful! And a bit weird, but beautiful. Can Casillas catch it? Or will it hit him in the face?_ ”

Iker jumped and caught it with his hand, falling to the ground and pinned it with his body. He could hear everyone cheered as he got the ball.

“ _Miraculous save by San Iker!! In your face, ball!_ ”

Iker stood up, holding the ball strongly in his hands as it’s trying to move away. He looked at the red lamp that looked like an eye, he pressed into it and the ball unfolded, it projected a light on his face, and snapped shut again. Now it started beeping, and heating up, it’s burning his hands.

“It’s a bomb!” Isco shouted and everyone panicked. Iker kicked the ball away. Cris showed up and caught it with his feet, dribbling outside.

“ _Plot twist! It’s not a ball, it’s a bomb!_ ”

But Gerard ran after him trying to get the ball. “No! I need the ball!”

“It’s dangerous, you fool!” Cris tried to kick it outside,

“ _An attack from Cristiano Ronaldo and…_ ”

Gerard tackled the ball to the side,

“ _Gerard Piqu_ _é is saving the—_ ”

sending it crash into one of the display. Glass shattered everywhere as it landed inside the cup. And the alarms went off.

“ _Oh no!_ ”

“Run!” Sergio showed up and grabbed the cup with the ball in it. The others followed him.

“ _Run everyone, run!!_ ” Thomas’ flying around.

Sergio couldn’t believe this. “Isco! Stop playing the video games!”

Isco groaned.

“The rest of you too!” Sergio shouted at the others who were still playing the video games on the big screen.

“But it’s really cool!” Neymar complained. “I finally beat James!”

“James?” Cristiano peeked up. That’s when he saw James dragged by Toni to leave the video games.

“Neymar,” Gerard started.

“Hey, Gerard!” Rafinha waved, “Why didn’t you join us?”

“Why didn’t you ask me to join?!” Gerard finished.

“Gerard!!” Sergio called him desperately, “Run! Now!” he grabbed Gerard’s hand then reached for his phone in his pocket, earning a protest from Gerard. He called Fernando, “Nando! You’ve got a bigger transportation? —What do you mean you’re on it? —What kind of weird security system? Did you get it or not? —Alright, you know what, we’ll take our usual car. —Yeah, I know we got more people.”

 

\--

 

“Then you know it’s impossible, Sergio!” Fernando shouted through his phone. “We’re almost ready! Come on, try again! Just imagine you’re a hundred-kilogram man, trying to sit his ass on a—”

“What?!” Sergio was confused. _What the fuck is Fernando talking about?_

“I’m not talking to you!” Fernando said to the phone. “Come on, Antoine, you can do this!”

“Antoine?” Sergio came to realization, “Oh my God, you really get yourself that French ass.” He could hear the groans from the other side of the line, one that didn’t belong to Fernando, then it hit him, “Not now, Nando!”

“What?” Fernando was confused, then he realized what Sergio must be thinking, “No! That’s not what I’m doing! Look, Sergio, I’m busy, hand the phone over to Xabi!”

“What? Why?” Sergio questioned. “Why do you want to talk to Xabi in all of sudden? You want him to listen to what you’re doing right now? I won’t let you corrupt him!”

“You don’t even know what I’m doing!” Fernando was indignant. “Somebody wants to talk to him, so meanwhile I can focus—and no! it’s not what you’re thinking!”

Sergio rolled his eyes and looked around, “Where’s Xabi?” he asked everyone.

“With Alvaro, waiting near the door out,” Iker told him. They’re closer to the way out. “That’s him!”

“Xabi!” Sergio called out, “Catch!”

“Hey! That’s my phone!” Gerard screamed in panic. Fortunately for him, Xabi caught the phone.

Xabi put it against his ear, “Hello?”

“Hello, Xabs.” A familiar voice called.

“Steve?” Xabi could see from the corner of his eyes the teasing look Alvaro gave him once that name came out of his mouth, he slapped that look out of his friend’s face away.

“Yeah,” Steven answered, “you see the open top bus? We’re there.”

 

\--

 

“What. am. I. watching.” Xabi was scandalized. In front of him, Fernando was crouching, guiding Antoine to sit with all kinds of instructions.

“Higher, higher,” Fernando gestured, “Now slam down like you just release your load to the toilet.”

“What?!” Antoine turned his head to him, looking incredulous.

“Just do it!”

Toni, who was just arrived there, stood beside Xabi, stunned, gaping.

“Torres!” Cristiano had arrived too. “What the fuck are you doing?! You’re wasting our time!”

Fernando turned his head and snapped back at Cris, “Well, try yourself to break this security system, if you can!”

“What security system?” Cris asked in disbelief. “A biometric identifier of ass?” then, out of curiosity, to check if he was right, he tried to sneak a peek between the seat of the bus and Antoine’s ass. Both Antoine and Fernando yelled in disapproval. Antoine panicked and sat abruptly, then the car started up, both cheered. _Apparently, he was right. It was a biometric identifier of ass. He couldn’t believe it._

“Yes!” Fernando lifted his fists in happiness. “That’s my ass!”

“What?” Antoine and everyone else who’s just arrived there said simultaneously.

Fernando just realized what had just came out of his mouth and how weird it sounded. “Just get on the bus!” he told everyone and took a seat next to Antoine. Everyone else got on the bus. “Now drive,”

“I can’t drive a bus,” Antoine confessed.

“What do you mean you can’t drive?!” Fernando, and some others in the passenger seat screamed. The security from the museum was out to get them now.

Fernando sneaked his feet to Antoine’s side and took the steering wheel, “There’s no way we’re doing that whole process again, keep your ass where it is,” that was his only warning before he started to drive the car from the shotgun, making everyone panicked. “Is anyone chasing us?!” Fernando asked, the rear-view mirror couldn’t give him much view.

Sergio got to the top of the bus to see, followed by the others. He panicked, “Yes, Nando, they’re here! The police are here!”

Fernando turned on the indicator light to the right.

“Did you just give them an indicator?” Antoine asked in disbelief.

“Watch,” he said, before swerving to the left right before the police cars chasing them swerving to the right. The cars stopped abruptly, some crashing into each other, some turned back to chase them.

On top of the bus, everyone cheered. Some even mocking the police. Sergio lifted the cup he’s holding, planning to show it in the police’s face. But then it slipped off his hands and fell. Everyone was stunned looking at it in slow motion. Fernando and Antoine saw it as it passed the front window, before it crashed to the ground and they ran over it. Everyone was quiet. Gerard was the first to break the silence, “Did you just drop it?”

“Sergio Ramos drop the cup!” Thomas announced loudly.

“I wanted to lift it! Not drop it!” he defended himself. But no one seemed to be on his side. They started shouting and accusing, some just shook their head or laughed because it’s _so him_.

Then the bus halted suddenly, the force sent Sergio almost tip over and fall, but Gerard grabbed him quickly. “There’s no way I lose you like that cup you drop.”

Fernando got out of the bus and took the cup before jumping back onto the bus and drove again. The cup wasn’t broken, but clearly damaged. It’s dented and crooked.

Sergio smiled at Gerard and was about to kiss him for saving his life and being so sweet but then the robot ball jumped at him, hitting him on the chest and bounced against his chest over and over. Thomas held out a long pole and squared off to send the ball away with a swing, “You little devil,”

Gerard saw that and stopped him. “No!” then he turned to the ball, “Hey, stop!” he caught the ball and it rolled in his hands, until the red lamp that looked like an eye facing him. It shone brighter, and the ball unfolded, a light projected on his face, scanning, then it beeped, and the light turned blue, the robot folded back into a ball, but now the eye is blue.

 _Like Gerard’s,_ Sergio thought. “He’s cute.”

Gerard raised an eyebrow at him, “Want to name it?”

“Blue,” Sergio suggested. The ball actually had more colour of white than blue, _but who wants to call something that cute ‘White’?_ Besides, the blue light spoke something to his heart.

“Blaugrana,” Gerard said.

“No!” Sergio refused.

“Blau?” Gerard offered.

Sergio considered it, “Okay.”

“Congratulation for your baby, guys,” Guti congratulated them. He honestly thought it’s ridiculous, but he kept it for himself. “I hate to remind you this, but we got police chasing us there, what are we gonna do? And can the baby help or something?”

“Actually, it can.” Gerard said and looked at Blau, it beeped and rolled wildly. Gerard didn’t know how, but he felt like he understood the robot. He made his way to the lower deck of the bus and called Fernando, “Fer, you got the cup?”

“Yeah,” Fernando said, still driving in awkward position. “though now it’s more like a wreck.” He handed Gerard the cup.

Gerard took the cup in his hand, a part of him wanted to cry just looking at it. It broke his heart. Blau in his arms scanned the object and let out beeps that sounded sad to Gerard’s ears, it even looked sad to Gerard’s eyes. But then it scanned the object again and beeped enthusiastically. Gerard looked at it, the dent revealed something, a pattern, and Blau was turning his light on it, making it visible to naked eyes, _that’s another clue. He can’t read it but Blau can._

When he explained it to the others, they thought the little ball robot had made him lose his mind, taken him inside the ball that made it shine blue now. “He will lead me to the next clue,” Gerard explained. “He had lead us to the right cup, now he will lead us to the next clue, whatever it is. Look, you can trust him.”

“ _Him?_ ” Xavi said in disbelief, and Gerard knew the guy was about to give him a long lecture.

So before Xavi could, Gerard spoke up, “The stick told me about him, the museum? It’s not just about the cup, it’s about him.”

“What stick?” Leo asked.

“She’s the one Gerard found in the sea,” Sergio explained. All eyes turned to him, waiting for further explanation. “It’s just a stick, okay?” Sergio gestured, trying to make an imaginary stick with his hands. “And it has lights and recordings, she said something like, ‘ _let it enlighten you and it will show you the way,_ ’” Sergio dramatically imitated the way Gerard mimicking the stick when he translated it to him. “She speaks in weird secret language—”

“It’s Catalan,” Gerard corrected him.

“Whatever.”


	10. Gran Teatre del Liceu: Some People Change The Theatre for The Cinema

They decided that Gerard and Sergio, _and Blau, Gerard insisted,_ would go find the next clue, while the others tried to deceive the police following them. Gerard climbed down from the bus first, the bus still moving, they’re not planning on stopping. Sergio climbed down after him, and Gerard couldn’t resist the urge to grab that ass now it’s right in front of his face, “Gerard!” Sergio shrieked and slapped Gerard’s hand as he did. Gerard laughed and jumped onto the road, landing gracefully. Sergio, however, was not that successful. The distance was still too high for him when he jumped, he stumbled backward and would hit the ground if it wasn’t for Gerard catching him in his arms. Soon after that, Blau jumped from the top of the bus to Sergio’s arms.

Unfortunately for them, the police notice them, and some on motorcycles turn to chase them. Gerard grabbed one of Sergio’s hands as the other kept holding Blau, “Run!”

They’re running in direction Blau showed them with his long-distance light. They kept bumping into pedestrians here and there. Once they almost bumped into a car that showed up at one corner and brake abruptly, they slid off on the car’s bonnet. And then they’re faced with a parade, “What kind of parade is this?!” Gerard looked at the scene in front of him, confused and desperate to go through the crowd.

Sergio’s eyes immediately sparked up as they landed on something in the parade, “Look, Gerard! A horse!”

“Sergio, it’s not the time to—”

But Sergio’s already dragging him through the crowd, “Come on!” The horse was attached to a carriage. Sergio quickly unattached it from the carriage without the person in the carriage knowing. Then he jumped onto the horse, that’s when the man in the carriage realized and tried to reach out for Sergio to get him off the horse. Sergio held out his hand to Gerard and pulled him up until Gerard mounted the horse behind him. When the man in the carriage reached the horse, Sergio rode away, and the man fell to the ground, “Sorry!”

They rode through the crowd and out of it, following the way Blau showed them. There’s a banner in front of them and they’re going under it—they’re not gonna fit. “Sergio, watch out!” Gerard ducked, pressing his weight on Sergio, so none of them hit the banner. Sergio laughed, Gerard took over the strap and control the horse.

“I think we’ve lost them!” Sergio shouted through the wind. “The police!”

“Yeah, good. Now where are we—” Blau directed the light into a building and Gerard wasn’t really thinking when he manoeuvred into it. Sergio screamed in both fear and excitement as they rode the house into the building, making chaos inside it. Gerard kept following where the light led them. _Fuck it, they’re inside, may as well get to the exact location with the horse._ The light stopped stretching and back to its normal range once they got into an enormous room, in front of them was rows of seats and balconies, they’re on a stage of a theatre.

 

\---

 

Gran Teatre del Liceu

 

“I have no idea why Baby Blau sent us here,” Sergio told Iker through the phone. “I don’t know where to find the clue, it’s just one big giant theatre and a show is going to be held here. And now they’re looking for us! We’ve let go the horse, hopefully he’s alright, but now Gerard and I have to hide under the seats!”

“Baby Blau?” Iker repeated.

“The little ball,” Sergio explained.

“Yeah, I know, the little demon.”

“Don’t call him that!” Sergio defended the robot like it really was his baby.

“He almost burnt my hands earlier, I have the rights to call him that.” Iker just seemed to realize something, “What horse?!”

“I’ll tell you later! Just come here, okay?”

 

\--

 

Gerard suggested they should hide somewhere else before the show started, they went up to the flying system and carefully walked on the wires, while Blau easily rolled on the wires. Thank God, he’s a robot and not regular ball. If that was the case, he probably had fallen off.

Sergio walked first, Gerard walked close behind him, he had the urge to shake the wire to get Sergio’s nerves but resisted. Good thing he resisted, because the next second after he brushed the thought off Sergio slipped, and Gerard caught him in reflex.

Sergio’s heart raced rapidly. He almost fell. Gerard held his hands, stretching their arms to gain more balance, and pressed his body against Sergio’s back. Sergio could feel Gerard’s steady heartbeat on his back. It’s calming. Gerard put his face against his as he warned, “Look out down below, love.”

The endearment betrayed the calming effect Gerard had on him earlier more than the warning did, Sergio started to grouch, “You know, usually people would tell no to look down…”

“You’re not afraid of heights, are you?” Gerard asked.

To be honest it’s not the height that scared him the most, it’s whatever he’s going through with Gerard, “I’ve been falling most of my life,” _am I falling for you, now?_ “I’m used to height.”

“It’s a long way down when you far from the ground,” Gerard muttered.

They finally reached a bar and sat there, watching the show from above when it finally started. Sergio was enjoying it. It almost felt like a date if only they’re not fugitives getting away and hiding.

“Are you taking part in choosing this place at this particular time or what?” Gerard asked suspiciously as he’s watching the flamenco performance.

Sergio laughed at that, “I swear I have nothing to do with this. I guess Baby Blau just loved flamenco as much as I do.”

“Oh no, you spoiled him.”

Sergio nudged at Gerard’s side, “But hey, I brought you to a flamenco show.”

 

\--

They finally arrived at the theatre. When they got in they were welcomed by a scene of a horse running around and people trying to catch it. It was a mess. It was a good distraction for some of them to go straight to the theatre room. But it wasn’t so easy for David. The horse ran straight at his direction and he somehow stopped the horse with just a move of a hand. He was a bit surprised he could do that.

Iker was trying to clear up the way out for the horse. He gestured at David to bring the horse.

“Come on, come here…” David tried to talk to the horse as he walked backward, leading the horse out of the building. “That’s good, that’s it, good boy.”

They were so close to the door out, Iker was guarding the door behind him, but suddenly someone attacked the horse from behind, the horse pranced and rushed out, David quickly threw himself at Iker bringing him down out of the way, so he wouldn’t be trampled by the horse. Iker pushed David off him, “Let’s go.”

 

When all of them arrived at the theatre room, the show had been started. They’ve got their communicators on and split up to look for Gerard and Sergio. But instead they found some things else.

Isco saw it first as he’s waking on the wings. “Hey guys that guy have a really cool saxophone.”

“Who cares, Isco,” Morata said, “who cares.”

Marco saw it from the stairs offstage, “Umm, should a saxophone be dissembled like that?”

Raúl who was watching from the balcony noticed something was off, “What saxophone are you talking about? No one’s playing saxophone.”

“Isco probably doesn’t know what a saxophone is,” Morata said, earning a protest from Isco.

Iker made the first move, “Marco, where are you?” he ran on the catwalk trying to locate Marco and whoever holding the saxophone from above. Then Iker saw it, on one of the bar was a man dissembling a saxophone, that turned out to be a rifle. On another bar, on the further side was Gerard and Sergio seemed completely oblivious. “I found Sergio and Gerard, they’re on the bar.”

Xabi ran to the control booth to get a better view. Someone was standing there facing the window, holding a rifle. Xabi sneaked behind and saw what the rifle was aimed at, the bar. He tried to take the rifle and got himself into a quarrel.

Iker jumped to the loft where the man with a saxophone was on, and strangled the man from behind. The man fought back, and Iker took the saxophone and the man gripped it and used his force to pushed Iker backward. Iker swirled the saxophone and thrust it on the man’s chin, making him fell to another loft below. Iker walked backward before running full speed and jumped onto the loft where Gerard and Sergio were. The loft moving upward, and Iker missed and almost fell, he gripped onto the edge of the bar. “Anyone’s on the control booth?”

The jolt sent Gerard and Sergio up. Sergio felt the weight on one side of the bar and saw fingers gripping on the edge of it. He approached and saw Iker hanging on it. Sergio tried to haul him up, Gerard came to help him. Once they succeeded, the three ran onto the catwalk.

Xabi answered, catching his breath, “I’m on the control booth, someone was aiming to shoot Gerard.”

“Anyone’s with Gerard?” Villa straightened his suit after beating sniper down on the balcony. “Even in a theatre so many people want him dead, I thought it was only in real life. That guy is a walking dramatis persona, everywhere he goes he brings all the drama with him. Tell him to get out of the theatre!”

“I know, he’s ruining the show, nobody needs to watch this sad tragedy,” Arbeloa agreed, “I’m delighted some people change the theatre for a cinema, that is always good.”

Iker was glad Gerard couldn’t hear that, “He’s with me,” he informed.

“Hide him, Iker,” Cristiano said, “I saw Zlatan on the roof.”

“I saw him earlier,” Leo said.

“And you didn’t do anything?” Cris asked in disbelief.

“No, because Zlatan was shooting the other snipers,” Leo told them.

Xavi saw one when he looked up, “There’s one on the flying system, I think he’s gonna swing.”

Neymar and Luis saw it from the loft, “We saw him!” Neymar announced.

“We gotta cut the rope,” Luis said to Neymar.

“You cut it!” Neymar told him.

“How?”

“I don’t know! Bite it or something!” Neymar didn’t think Luis would really do that, but when he did, he encouraged him, “Bite Suarez bite!”

“You’re biting the man?” Xavi panicked as he kept an eye at the man who’s holding on the rope, squaring off.

“No, the rope!” Neymar corrected.

Then the man swung, but instead going hyperbola, he fell straight down as the rope was cut off. Xavi ran to avoid the man crashing on him.

Guti paced the balcony, “Someone access the CCTV.”

“On it,” Arbeloa confirmed.

“Good, can you inform us if there’s any more snipers near us?” Raúl asked.

“Not really, I have no idea where you at,” Arbeloa said. But that hair on screen was unmistakable, “Marcelo, you’ve got another sniper behind you.” He scanned the other cameras, “Anyone on greenroom? We got one more sniper there.”

“I am,” Toni confirmed. He saw the sniper and was about to attack when somebody else attacked the sniper before he could. But the sniper was stronger and aimed the rifle at his attacker, _it was James._ Toni took his gun and shot.

The sound was loud. “What is that?!” Raúl asked. “No one shoots!”

“Too late for that,” Guti saw security started coming from the vomitorium, “Everyone, move out. Iker, you’re still with Gerard? Take him to the roof.”

“No, unfortunately, I am not.” Iker let Gerard and Sergio go with Cesc as he saw David following someone. “They’re with Cesc.” Now Iker’s stalking David from the catwalk as David walking up the stairs.

David saw her, walking gracefully up the stairs. He ran following her.

“Everyone else, to the roof,” Raúl commanded.

 

Sergio stopped Gerard as they’re making their way to the roof, “Wait,”

“What?” Gerard turned to him, “Please don’t tell me you want to watch the performance to the end.”

“Well, I want to—” Sergio joked, but stopped as he saw the look on Gerard’s face, “I think I know the clue. But you gotta let me on the stage.”

“What? No way!”

“Well then somebody else have to do it!” Sergio tried to convince him, “I’m the best flamenco singer we have.”

“You’re the only one who sings flamenco among us,” Gerard stated.

Sergio rolled his eyes. Gerard did get a point. “Listen, I need to get there. This is not about flamenco.” He locked Gerard in the eye, “Trust me.”

“Okay,” Gerard finally said.

“Oh, and I’m gonna need Blau,” Sergio gestured to the ball in his arm.

Gerard nodded, “Alright.”

Sergio smiled and gave Gerard a peck on the lips before leaving, “Wish me luck.”

Cesc was gaping at the scene. Gerard turned to him, “What?”

“Since when?” Cesc still looked shocked.

Gerard shrugged and grinned, “It’s inevitable.”

They’re running toward the door, but it’s locked. “Marc!” Cesc called.

“I can’t open it!” Marc said from the other side.

“It was open a few minutes ago!” Cesc desperately tried to open the door.

Gerard warned Marc, “Marc, step away,” he nodded at Cesc and both threw their weight to break the door only to pain their shoulder. Gerard groaned.

“Did you just try to break the door?” Marc sounded like he’s ridiculing him.

“Shut up!” Gerard snapped.

Rafinha was running to them, followed by Ter Stegen “Guys, please say you got the door open because this maniac said he will—”

“Step away, everyone,” Ter Stegen warned before he shot the door open.

“I said no one shoots!” Raúl was indignant when he heard the shot from the communicator.

Gerard panicked and rushed outside, “Marc! You didn’t get shot, did you?”

Marc was leaning on the wall beside the door, trying to control his breath, “Almost.”

 

\--

 

Sergio was holding on a rope that was hanging from the loft. He’s holding Blau in one arm and the little robot started beeping quietly, like signalling something. Sergio smiled, he knew he was right. Now all he had to do was just concentrate and—slid through the rope and landing on the stage awkwardly. People on the stage were looking at him. He wasn’t really planning to get on the stage when he said it, but well, things happened. _Concentrate, Sergio, keep listening to the music until—_ Blau stopped beeping.

 

 

\--

 

Victoria was aiming a gun at someone on the stage from the fly loft. David peeked at the stage and saw that that someone she’s aiming was Sergio. _Why is Sergio even on the stage?_ David jumped at Victoria from the back and tried to take the gun from her. She fought him, and they got into a quarrel. David managed to throw the gun away and pinned her down. “What are you doing, David?” she gritted her teeth.

“Can’t you do it without killing him?”

Iker saw her reached for a knife from her heel and was about to stab David with it, he reached for the controls and sent the loft down to the stage.

That surprised both David and Victoria. They crashed on to the stage right in front of Sergio who was standing there awkwardly. “David?” Sergio saw the position David was with a woman beneath him, “What are you doing?”

“Get on the loft!” David ordered. When Sergio didn’t move, he repeated, “Just do it!” He flipped Victoria and threw her off the loft. Sergio got on the loft and suddenly it moved up rapidly.

Up there, Iker had been waiting for them. David knew it was Iker, “What was that for?!” he’s referring to the sudden drop. Though he knew he should be thanking Iker. They got out of the flying system and quickly ran towards the roof. Blau rolled, following them.

“Who is she?!” Iker attacked back. “Stay away from him, Nene,” he warned Sergio, “Stay away! Run!”

 

“What do you think I’m doing?” Sergio said as he kept running.

“How could I know who she is?! Do you know any sniper we’ve been taking down?!” David countered.

“Don’t lie to me, David!” Iker accused him, “I heard your conversation on the payphone!”

“It was barely a conversation!” David recalled it was just Victoria talking.

“So you admit there was something on the payphone!” Iker accusation sounded like victory, David cursed himself for being so easy to fall to Iker’s trap.

“Guys! Shut up! I’m trying to keep something in memory here!” Sergio protested.

“You’re trying to keep the performance in your memory?” Iker joked.

“No! Why all of you keep making fun of my liking for flamenco!” Sergio complained.

When they reached the roof, there were two helicopters waiting, one bigger than the other. Raúl was flying the smaller one while Steven was flying the other one. Gerard was helping the others to get to the bigger helicopter. He ran to Sergio once he saw him, Sergio jumped into his arms and kissed him.

Their kiss was interrupted as Iker shouted from the smaller helicopter, “Stop kissing, we’re flying!”

Gerard took Sergio by the hand as he led to the helicopter, “Let’s go, the others will distract the security and other opposition, we have to get to the next clue, if you got it.”

“I got it,” Sergio told him. Once they got into the helicopter and started to fly away, Sergio remembered, “Blau!” he looked outside, Blau was still on the roof, swirling around near Neymar’s feet. “Neymar!” he called, “Kick the ball here!”

Gerard panicked, “No! he can fall! Raúl! Stop the helicopter!”

“Raúl, can you fly back there to minimize the distance?” Sergio pleaded.

“No! We’re running out of time!” Raúl refused.

Sergio cursed and shouted back to Neymar, “Kick him! And you better get it inside the helicopter safely or I’m gonna kill you!”

David was surprised to hear seriousness in Sergio’s tone, “Why do you love the ball so much?”

“He’s the key to our journey!” Sergio defended his love for the ball.

Gerard was praying Neymar didn’t miss, it was a long distance after all. Neymar squared off before ran and kicked the ball. _Oh no, it’s not gonna reach the helicopter, it’s gonna fall to the ground._ Suddenly, Leo ran, jumping high and kicked the ball further, adding the force it needed to reach the helicopter.

“That was unnecessary!” Neymar groaned. He was supposed to be the one doing the incredible kick.

“I’ve just saved your life, Sergio would have killed you,” Leo said calmly.

Inside the helicopter, Iker caught the ball before it could smash the window on the other side and break out. Sergio took the ball from Iker happily. “Show us where’s the next stop.”

Blau projected a picture of rocks onto the air. “Hey, I know where that is,” Gerard said.

 


	11. The Treasure: Corazón y Sangre

They’re back to the small beach, hidden between rocks, where they hid after they fetched the key from the sea yesterday. Sergio couldn’t believe it was just yesterday. This time, Raúl, Iker, and David were with them though.

Apparently, it’s not just the five of them there this time. The woman he saw David pinned down earlier was there as if waiting for them. “David,” she called. _Or maybe just for David._ “Hand me the ball.”

“What ball?” David clarified.

“That ball,” she glanced at Blau who now was swirling around Sergio’s feet as if trying to hide himself.

“You like that ball too?” David knew there was something about the ball. He wouldn’t admit it, but he started to feel kind of protective of the ball. If Victoria almost killed Sergio back at the theatre God knew what she would do to the ball.

“That ball has the key to what we’re looking for, David,” she explained.

Iker stepped forward, “What are you looking for exactly?” Iker asked her then turned to David, “David?” Iker didn’t even bother to ask who she was anymore.

“You haven’t told him, David?” she started using Iker’s suspicion against David. “What we’re looking for is exactly what you’re looking for,” she said to Iker. “Your cover can stop here, David. Now, the ball,” she handed out her hand.

“What cover?” Iker, Raúl, Sergio, and Gerard asked simultaneously. But Iker was the one who put his face up close to David’s and gritted his teeth, “Who are you, David?”

When David was trying to answer, Victoria had made her way to the ball, but Raúl stopped her from getting it by playing it between his feet. He passed it to Sergio and the two of them playing the ball just so she couldn’t get it.

Gerard was about to join Raúl and Sergio when suddenly someone grabbed his wrist and jerked him backward. His mouth was covered with a hand. He couldn’t see his attacker, but he had a feeling who it was. Gerard felt his back hit one of the rock and that’s when he saw Zlatan, hands still gripping him and covering his mouth. Zlatan turned him around to face the rock and pinned him there, forcing his hand to lay on a particular spot on the rock, “If only it was a fingerprint I would have cut your hand, Gerard,” he gritted. “Lucky for you, this is a vein matching. Lucky for you I’ve taken out your other enemies.”

The rock slid opened, Gerard wasn’t expecting that. The one in the sea was a small one, this is one giant rock in front of him. It opened and revealed—well it was sort of disappointing for Gerard—a briefcase. “Your hand,” Zlatan forced his hand to place it on the briefcase, Gerard really tried to resist, but Zlatan was stronger and almost breaking his wrist. The briefcase lighted up, the vein matching worked, but the briefcase wouldn’t open when Zlatan tried to open it. “What’s the number?” he noticed the lock.

“I don’t know.” Gerard told him honestly. Zlatan did the twist of his wrist until Gerard squealed, “I swear I have no idea! Try my birthday or something!”

“What’s your birthday?”

Gerard looked to see if Zlatan was joking, he wasn’t, “That hurts.”

“What? That I don’t remember your birthday?”

Gerard pouted, “Everyone should remember my birthday.”

 

\--

 

Iker and David had been quarrelling all the way to the coast and the sea. Rolling and pinning each other down. Iker pinned David down, letting the wave splashed the man beneath him, “You’re a spy?!”

“You’re a professional criminal!” David accused, but saying it let the salty sea water got into his mouth. He spat it on Iker’s face.

Iker just shook his face, but his grip on David’s shoulder wasn’t losing, “Undergraduate student,” Iker corrected him. “I’m still learning.” Iker knew he should be hating David right now, all his suspicion had been revealed to be true. He had been risking his friends’ lives when he ignored his suspicions of David, at the museum, at the payphone, or even earlier. But with David lying beneath him, all soaked with water, his white shirt became transparent, pressing tight against his body, _it’s just impossible to hate you_. Iker was delirious, “You’re my perfect crime.”

David blinked at him, “What?—” but his sentences was lost into Iker’s mouth as Iker leaned down and kissed him passionately. David couldn’t help but kiss back.

“You fucking liar,” Iker was attacking his lips with his teeth. “Traitor.”

“Thief,” _you_ ste _al my heart._ But David was just kissing back, enjoying all this, Iker’s weight on his body, the sand on his back, and the wave rippling between them.

 

Raúl was the first to notice Gerard was missing, then he saw something behind the rocks. He kicked the ball away for a distraction and ran to the rocks.

 

Victoria’s shout brought David back to his senses, “David! The ball! It’s rolling to you!” but that only brought advantage to Iker rather than him, because Iker was quicker and easily stopped the ball with one hand.

With Raúl’s help, Gerard finally manage to run free from Zlatan, bringing a briefcase. Victoria stopped him by aiming a gun at him. “The briefcase,” Victoria threatened. Gerard shook his head, holding the briefcase close to his chest. “David, take it,” Victoria ordered.

David pushed Iker off him and got away, running to Gerard. He’s trying to take the briefcase. They’re tugging the briefcase like children fighting for toys. Gerard’s own force to pull the briefcase sent himself flying backward when David finally succeeded to snatch the briefcase. Gerard landed on the sand, his eyes was full of emotion of defeat. _It was as if the briefcase has more significant meaning to him._ From the corner of his eyes, David could see Sergio running for Gerard. He could hear Iker shouting at him with rage.

Gerard got up and launched himself at David, crushing him on the ground. He sat on David, using all his weight to trap David. He snatched the briefcase from David’s hand. When David tried to break lose, Gerard smashed David’s face with the briefcase. When he tried to do it again David used his hands to push the briefcase, smashing Gerard in the face and the force sent Gerard off him. David managed to take the briefcase back. When he stood up, Victoria had been holding out her hand, waiting.

Raúl and Zlatan were still fighting, Sergio ran to Gerard to make sure he was okay, and Iker was still standing in the water at the seashore, eyes piercing, sending David a flow of disappointment and betrayal as he was giving Victoria the briefcase. Victoria was checking the lock. She turned her face to Iker, “Now, the ball.”

Iker was still holding the ball in his hands. He gritted his teeth, “You wish.”

“David,” Victoria started.

David took his steps towards Iker. He really didn’t want to hurt Iker, “Iker, please.” He begged for Iker to just give the ball to him, so they wouldn’t have to go through all this. “I don’t want to fight you.”

“Fight me,” Iker spat.

“Fuck, Iker, don’t be so stubborn!” David was getting desperate. He was torn between doing what was right and not hurting the person he loved. That was when he realized, he loved Iker. _Why he has to fall in love with the bad guy._ He launched himself at Iker and tried to get the ball. Iker was fighting, protecting the ball while hitting and kicking, finally manage to strangle him, his arm was strong around David’s neck. David wondered if this was it. Iker was going to strangle him to death or break his neck.

Iker was crying, he was just as torn apart as David. He had come to love David. But he had promised Sergio, and he loved him too, and he couldn’t risk ruining the others’ lives by giving in. Even though a part of him would just want to give in. He buried his face in David’s hair, whispering, “I’m sorry.”

David only saw a glimpse of it, but that was enough to warn him. Victoria was aiming her gun at Iker. “Victoria, no!” but his cries came out choked. Maybe because he _was_ being chocked. David pushed his weight backward, sending them falling to the water.

 Victoria missed. But the fall David made sent Blau off Iker’s hand. Victoria ran to get it before anyone else could. While Iker kept David from struggling free.

Victoria tried to dissemble the robot, pressing and hitting here and there. She held up her gun at Gerard, “The code.”

“What is wrong with you people?” Gerard was fed up, he would have opened the briefcase by himself if he knew. “I don’t know!”

“Then tell him to tell me the code,” she gestured at Blau that now she’s holding with her foot.

“Tell her the code, Blau.” Gerard said, even though he didn’t believe Blau knew either, or maybe the robot did. Blau made a sound that sounded like he didn’t know it either. Gerard was getting more confident with their connection in communicating each time. “He doesn’t know either.”

Victoria wouldn’t buy it though, “Tell him to give me the code!” she moved her gun from him to the ball, “or I will shoot the code out of him.”

“He doesn’t know the code!” Sergio burst out.

“Seems like you do,” Victoria aimed the gun at Sergio, she forced Sergio to kneel and put the briefcase in front of him, gun pressing against Sergio’s head, “Open it!”

“He doesn’t know it either!” Gerard took his gun and aimed it at Victoria.

Zlatan was laughing behind him, “You can’t shoot! What is that, a toy gun?”

“I can shoot!” Gerard yelled. He was distracted by Zlatan, he didn’t notice when Victoria suddenly took his gun and aimed it at him, her own gun was still aimed at Sergio. He should’ve probably acted scared and took her gun, but one second of satisfied expression gave it away, Victoria shot with his gun, revealing that it was empty. She threw his gun and pressed the gun harder on Sergio’s head, “The code.”

Gerard yelled in frustration, “He doesn’t know it!” but Victoria didn’t seem to listen and kept threatening Sergio.

“I know,” Sergio said. Gerard was surprised to hear that. _How does he know?_

Sergio closed his eyes, trying to remember the rhythm of the music at the theatre, concentrating to convert it into numerical notation.

Victoria wasn’t so patience, “Quick!”

Sergio prayed he didn’t misremember or convert it wrong. He rolled the dial one by one, there were so many of them. He had never seen a lock with this many numbers. The locked was unlocked. Sergio sighed in relief. But when Victoria tried to open the briefcase, it wouldn’t open. Victoria was still pressing the gun on Sergio’s head.

Zlatan was laughing at her, “You think that’s all the lock?” He had wanted to take her down earlier, but he figured she could do him some work. He himself had thought the vein-matching was the only lock. And turned out there’s another lock besides the code. His eyes caught the sight of a little hole, barely noticeable. “You still have the stick, Gerard?”

“No,” Gerard said honestly. The stick wasn’t technically on him. He had kept it safe back then when they were on the bus, knowing he got a safe place to hide it.

But Zlatan could read him so well, “It’s in the ball.”

Victoria rolled the ball with her foot, gun aimed at it, “Open,”

The ball made a move that looked like as if it’s shaking its head.

“It’s only Gerard who can open it,” Zlatan explained, “It would scan his face and eyes and sniff the smell out of his palms while he’s holding it.”

Gerard didn’t even know the last part. He knelt, trying to set it free from her feet. He would not risk her destroying the ball.

Victoria aimed the gun at Gerard’s head, “Open it.” She passed the ball to Gerard, and it rolled to Gerard’s open hands.

Gerard lifted the ball, looking in the blue-light eye. “Hey, open up for me, okay?” Blau beeped in protest but finally opened, revealing the stick. Gerard took the stick and gave it to her. He knew the stick was useless in other’s hands. Sergio had snatched it from him before, it shut down immediately.

However, of course, Zlatan knew that too. “It’s useless in your hand. Tell him to do it.”

After failing trying it by herself, Victoria handed back the stick to Gerard and pressed the gun harder against his head. Gerard finally obeyed and put the stick into the hole in the briefcase. It lighted up and beeped.

David casually took the briefcase from Gerard before Victoria did. He had managed to break free from Iker, and when he saw it, David knew he had made a mistake. _Gerard is the one inheriting the legacy._ David had thought the ball just had some preference for Gerard, but thought it had nothing to do with the legacy. _And Victoria knew it when she asked Gerard for the code. How could he be so blind?_ “He’s the one who owns the legacy,” David said to her, asking for some clarification. “Why would we take it from him? The mission was to prevent the legacy being stolen by other parties.”

“David, give it to me,” she held out her hand, reaching for the briefcase.

David held it out of her reach. “You want the treasure for yourself.”

She launched herself at David, knocking him down to the ground with her weight. The briefcase slipped off David’s grip, hit the ground, and opened. What’s inside was nothing but a chunk of paper. Victoria let David go to get to the briefcase, scrambling through the paper.

Zlatan had made his way to the briefcase too. Looking for anything but a chuck of papers about Gerard. _Nothing_. “The treasure—”

Gerard looked at the papers, “It’s just about me.” If earlier when he saw the briefcase he had felt disappointed, now he felt superfluous.

“The priceless, invaluable treasure is just _you_?” Zlatan looked at Gerard in disbelief.

Now that Zlatan put it that way Gerard felt offended. Sergio put his arm around his neck, “Couldn’t blame him. He is precious. He’s worth more than any other treasure in the world. It’s your own fault you treated him like trash and let him go,” Sergio said to Zlatan before he put a kiss on Gerard’s cheek.

Gerard turned his head to give Sergio a proper kiss on the lips, smiling.

Zlatan wouldn’t buy it. “The ball. It’s in the ball.”

“There’s nothing in the ball,” Gerard told him.

“Open it, then,” Victoria pressed the gun on his head again. Gerard knelt to open the ball again. After refusing several times, Blau finally unfolded, revealing something inside it. Gerard took it and was considering what to do next, like to attack, or give it to Victoria or Zlatan, when Victoria said, “That’s all? Wouldn’t he have something more?!” and with that she shot Blau shattered into pieces. Some of the pieces flying across his face, the sharp parts slicing his skin, drawing out some blood, but he was too shocked to do anything. He could hear Sergio’s cry in the distance.

Victoria was kicking the pieces, looking for anything that looked like treasure, while Zlatan gripped his wrist, “Gerard, the treasure,”

Gerard opened his palm and let Zlatan took what’s inside it. He didn’t care anymore, he never cared about the treasure in the first place. Zlatan left them, nobody tried to stop him or take back whatever he had taken from Gerard. No one cared anymore. Victoria was the last one to realize that, when Zlatan started to fly his helicopter. She ran to her own helicopter, after getting on it, she gestured to David, “David,”

David was facing the helicopter’s door. He didn’t know if he should take a step to it. “You’re leaving,” he heard Iker saying behind him. That was not a question. That was an accusation. “Leave now and forever. Fly away, you’re breaking my heart by staying here any longer.”

David turned to him, “If I fly away, I will leave my heart here.”

“David!” Victoria called him, getting impatience.

David ignored her, he walked closer to Iker, “I can’t leave without it.” They’re so close now, and David was leaning closer.

“You’re already heartless,” Iker crushed their lips together and David melted into the kiss.

Victoria manoeuvred the helicopter, _she’s going to crash David and his boyfriend with the helicopter if that’s what it takes_.

Raúl saw it coming, at first, he thought she would just fly away with the helicopter. But that’s not what the manoeuvre told him. He ran crushing Iker and David onto the ground, but he wasn’t fast enough that the front of helicopter hit crashed leg, and the landing skids smashed his ankle, before it flew away.

She saw that she missed. She took a turn, flying the helicopter back.

Sergio and Gerard rushed to Raúl, Iker, and David. Sergio flopped down and held Raúl as he’s moaning in pain. Gerard ducked to help Iker and David up.

This time, before flying away, Victoria used the easier way, she shot at them several times.  

Sergio watched in horror as Gerard’s eyes went wide when he straightened up, blood spurted out of his body, before he slumped down. It was a silence scream that came out of Sergio’s mouth. He would’ve run there to get him if only Raúl wasn’t lying in his arms in pain. He couldn’t keep his thoughts from wandering there, but couldn’t bring himself to ask, _is he dead?_

Iker caught Gerard in his arms. “David, my phone!” Iker gestured to his pocket. “Call Guti or anyone else on the other helicopter!”

David took Iker’s phone. “It’s dead. The water got into the system.”

Iker cursed.

Raúl felt Sergio shaking behind him, he tugged on Sergio’s arm, “My phone, call Guti.”

 

\--

 

Guti lost control, and partly his mind, when he heard the news. It felt like an eternity for him, even though it didn’t take long for them to finally arrive, and when they did, he rushed to get Raúl on to the helicopter, even though the guy kept insisting he was fine. David took the briefcase of papers and pieces of the robot while Iker and Sergio were carrying Gerard on to the helicopter.

David knew Iker was blaming himself, so when they got onto the helicopter the first thing he did was wrapping his arms around Iker as Iker was leaning on the door frame. David prayed they’re not gonna fall off the helicopter after all of this, this was a door off helicopter they’re on, and the rush only added the fear of possibility. They wind was blowing their hair, and Iker was looking down as if—“ Don’t jump.” David said, “It’s not your fault.”

“The hell it’s not, it’s your fault.” It pained Iker to see them hurt, and it broke his heart to see their lovers’ reactions. He would never want to be the one taking that away from them. “I risk their lives by trusting you. It partly happened because I was too busy kissing you.”

David wasn’t regretting the kiss, “I’m sorry.” David said, and he was, he truly was. “Blame me, put it all on me, but not on yourself.”

But Iker wouldn’t do that, couldn’t do that. They’ve trusted each other, taking leaps, risking everything and paid the price for it. Even after all of this he still wouldn’t want to let go what he had with David, even though he was not sure they’re ready to take the leap again, “David, look down.”

 

 

Guti was holding Raúl in his arms as Raúl refused to get any treatment because he’s not the one who needed an emergency.

“You strong badass, don’t put that up on me.” Guti held Raúl tighter, “I know you’re in pain.”  Even though Raúl had insisted he’s fine and tried his best to look like it, Guti had noticed that Raúl’s leg bent in a weird way, and his ankle was battered.

Raúl chuckled. “You are holding me too tight.” _It’s good, you’re killing the pain away. The pain of being crushed by you is much better._

_He still has the heart to laugh._ Guti cursed inside.

Raúl paused. “I’m not the one dying, though.” He’s looking out the off door. “It’s beautiful,” he muttered. “This is my last game, Chema. Let it be.”

“Don’t you quit now, if you quit, I quit.”

Raúl reached up to kiss Guti on the cheek, “We’ll win this first.”

 

Xabi started to cut Gerard’s shirt while Sergio was holding Gerard, burying his face on his shoulder, sobbing. Gerard was lucky the bullet missed his heart, but he was losing blood, much blood, and his consciousness, Sergio was so afraid if anytime those eyes closed they would never open again. They’ve been through so much together, they’ve fight their weight against a bull, they’ve swum into the Mediterranean Sea, they’ve ride a horse together, they’ve made through their getaways, they’ve fucked in the middle of a shootout, and they have even swum in the sea of champagne, _he’s not gonna lose him now after all of that, no._

Xabi was trying to treat the wounds, he wanted to tell Sergio to go off, but he knew Sergio would refuse, but crying on the victim shoulder wouldn’t help anything. “Sergio, I need you to help me.” Xabi rephrased that, “ _He needs you._ ” Sergio looked up and nodded, Xabi handed him some cloths, “press it on the wounds, apply some pressure.” Xabi gave Gerard another cloth to bite, “Sergio, distract him.”

Sergio started whispering sweet nothings on Gerard’s ear as Xabi was removing bullet pieces from another wound on the chest. Gerard tensed and screamed in agony, it sounded so painful that Sergio almost felt it like it was himself. Sergio tried to distract him, “Hey, you remember about the promise we made? I’ve taken you to a flamenco show. You said you will teach me how to speak Catalan, tell me some words?”

“ _Fa mal,_ ” Gerard hissed.

Sergio kissed his temple, “What does it mean?”

“It hurts.” Gerard managed to say before letting out another agonizing scream.

Sergio knew he needed to rethink his strategy, “How about ‘it’s okay’, how do you say ‘it’s okay’ in Catalan?”

“ _Està bé._ ” Gerard was struggling with pain and screaming again as Xabi’s working on the wound.

Sergio tried to calm him down, whispering, “Està bé, està bé.” but it sounded more like a prayer. “Do you even have to remove that?”

“Yes, and that one can still be removed.” Xabi covered the wound with cloth and started to wrap a gauze around Gerard.

The cloths soon soaked with blood and Gerard started coughing up blood. Sergio didn’t realize his had loosened his hand, until Xabi pressed another cloth on the previous ones pressing down his hand, “Pressure, Sergio.”

“But, he’s—” Sergio looked down and frothy blood started coming out of the wounds, and Gerard’s breath became shortened.

Xabi examined the wound, his face changed. He started to unwrap the gauze.

Sergio was confused, “What are you doing?! He’s losing blood!”

“Tell him to breathe!” Xabi took the cloths off the wounds, “Gerard,” Gerard didn’t answer. “Gerard, breathe!” He started to seal the wounds with plastic, “Tell him to breathe!”

“Gerard, do you hear me?” _he’s losing him, no_. Sergio held his face and whispered, “Geri, breathe, please.” Gerard let out short breath.

“Keep him up, Sergio. Gerard, exhale,” Xabi command. “Exhale! Exhale it all!”

Sergio was begging him to stay conscious, “Geri, stay with me, Gerard.” _Stay,_ but Gerard was losing it, “Geri, please, exhale.” Gerard exhaled short. _He’s still there._

“Again!” Xabi shouted. _Nothing._ “Exhale, Gerard!” Gerard did, _finally._ “Now hold your breath!”

“What?!” Sergio cried in disbelief. “He’s supposed to breathe!”

Xabi quickly seal the wounds. “Now, breathe. Make sure he’s breathing Sergio, keep him conscious.” Xabi wrapped bandage around the wounds and apply some pressure, gesturing at Sergio to do the same.

“He stops breathing!” Sergio panicked.

“Reduce the pressure,” Xabi said as he did so.

“Ger, stay with me,” Sergio held him close, shaking. “Breathe, please. No, I’m not losing you, no.”

“Calm yourself, Sergio. You’re transferring your unstable emotion through your heartbeat on his back.”

_Typical Xabi._ But Sergio tried to control his heart rate and slow down his breath. Sergio’s whispering sweet nothings to Gerard, partly to calm himself down, kissing him. He noticed Gerard’s chest started to rise up and down. _He breathes._ Gerard weekly reached for his face, wiping the tears, caressing the side of his face, “Don’t be sad,” he smiled, consoling as if Sergio was the one who’s dying and not him. “ _Està bé_ , Sese, _està bé._ ” And damn, it only tore Sergio’s heart.

Gerard was losing consciousness. He’s trying hard to hold on, to grasp into something, that face he loved so much, the reality he wanted to keep holding on forever, “Sese, _t’es—_ ” Gerard closed his eyes. His hand fell from Sergio’s face.

Sergio cried in silence, pressing his lips on Gerard’s temple, “I love you,” he said between kisses and tears. “How do you say it in Catalan?” _I never got a chance to say that._ “Don’t you dare to die and leave me,” _you said you would stay._

Gerard couldn’t hear the confession Sergio made.

It was a dark hour of flight he’d been through.


	12. The Final: Saluda al Campeón!

Arbeloa was the first to hear the news. He enthusiastically announced it through the intercom, “Hello everybody, I am, Alvaro Arbeloa, as your co-pilot, happily announcing that…” he let it hang until he heard shouts from the back of helicopter urging him to continue. “We are the champion!” he cried out proudly through the intercom, before chanting, “Pique, you, sonofabitch, salute the champions!” which was followed by Los Blancos team.

“Alvaro!” Iker warned him, his voice cut through the whole crowd in the helicopter.

“Sorry, couldn’t help it,” he said, but laughed. But then he stopped, “The guy has recovered, right?” because it would be really mean if the guy hadn’t and he made fun of him, or worse, if the guy’s dead.

“No offense taken, and don’t worry none of you have to apologize,” Gerard said from the intercom. He, miraculously, after long hours of unconsciousness had recovered. He still felt the pain, but it’s not something unbearable. Xabi was the one who needed to tell Sergio that he’s still alive, after finally realizing Sergio thought he’s dead because he’s too deep in his grief to notice the hardly noticeable heartbeat and breathing, and when Gerard finally was finally conscious, Iker had to help Xabi to prevent Sergio from choking Gerard with his too tight and enthusiastic hug.

“I wasn’t apologizing to you, I was apologizing to Iker.”

Gerard ignored that, however, he needed to clarify, “Is this one separate team you’re talking about or the team as a whole?”

“Does it matter? You lost the bet.” It was responded by noise of disagreements. Alvaro sighed, “It’s the team as a whole.” Instantly, the helicopter was filled with cheers of joy.

Sergio was leaning on Gerard and took the time to read the papers from the briefcase as everyone else was celebrating the win, “These are the legal documents saying that you’re the heir president of the university where the best criminals come from. No wonder the whole universe is against you.”

“Tonight, I declare myself a president.” Gerard declared.

_And here he goes again after dying a few hours ago._ “The president of evil?” Sergio joked, Gerard laughed at that, Sergio kissed that laugh away, “That’s hot.”

Gerard kissed him back, “You’ll be the king.”

Sergio joined the cheers of celebration, “We’ll conquer the world!” His eyes darted to Gerard’s wound, a memory of pain but also strength, “Even if we have to bleed ourselves out!”

Gerard raised a glass and announced through the intercom, “I will say to the hospitals to hire more nurses!” he spun Sergio around outward, Sergio’s laughing when he did that. _How he loves that laugh_. Gerard spun Sergio back into his arms and put his lips near Sergio’s ear, whispering through the intercom to make sure it’s loud enough for everyone else to hear when he said, “Tonight, people will make a lot of love.” And then he kissed Sergio.

 

“So I was thinking…” Arbeloa continued through the intercom. “Christmas is coming, should we bring the snow?”

Sergio was so excited he snatched the intercom from Gerard’s hand. “We have snow in this helicopter?”

“Isn’t Christmas still a month ahead?” Xabi asked.

Xabi’s voice must have come through the intercom somehow because he got an answer from the cockpit, it was Steven, “Oh, darling, we’ll bring Christmas early to our house.”

 

 

They finally arrived at the university, down there, the university field was surrounded by crowd waiting for them, on the field and on the balconies on four buildings surrounding it. Flowers, confetti, colourful smokes and all kinds of fireworks and lightnings enlivened the celebration of The Game closing. They even used the water canon not just for water salute, but also for champagne salute.

A high statue, one some of them stole in one of The Games in some year and had become the university statue ever since, was put in the middle of the field but before they could land, Sergio ran to the cockpit to ask the pilots not to. He then grabbed two parachutes and threw one at Gerard’s face. He put it on as Gerard di the same, “You know how to use it, right?”

“Of course,” Gerard grinned, accepting the challenge.

Iker didn’t seem so happy about it, “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Oh, Iker, you should try to!” Sergio pointed at the place where they kept the parachutes, “There were many for all of us!”

Isco ran to the stock of parachutes, “Oooh, I want to!” Everyone else started running for the parachute. For once, no one seemed to listen to Iker.

Sergio jumped to Gerard who instinctively caught him, bridal style. He put his arms around Gerard’s neck, “Carry me while we fly.”

Gerard laughed, “I’m gonna have to tell you that we’re gonna fall, not fly.” Then he thought about it, “Is it even okay to carry you this way?”

Sergio smiled and looked him in the eyes, “I trust you.”

Gerard’s lips turned into a smile, “Alright, then,” he ran backward before ran out the door and jumped off the helicopter, throwing Sergio’s off the air.

Sergio was surprised, but the feeling of floating in the air felt so good that his scream turned into laughter, he stretched out his body and reached for Gerard’s hands as they’re falling. The sky was filled with colourful smokes, fireworks, lights, and splash of water, then the snow started falling around them. Some drops falling on Gerard’s hair as the wind messed his hair, his eyes were sparkling, matching the wide smile on his face. _Beautiful_. Sergio had never felt so alive.

The others started to jump off the helicopter too. Thomas were reporting the whole event as he and the two cameramen went skydiving, of course he did. “I’m Thomas Müller reporting the closing of The D.I.V.E Game live on air!” he gestured around him as he’s stretched out, laughing, “You get it? See? On air! I’m in the air!!”

 

Even Iker finally took the leap with David. “David! You’re gonna hit the statue!” Iker shouted above him, they’ve pulled their parachute was slowing down, but David didn’t seem to aim for the empty space on the field.

“That what I was aiming for!” David shouted back, “You should come with me!”

Iker’s rational thought certainly didn’t come to him as he aimed for the statue as well. David, fortunately, landed safely on the statue’s shoulder. He held out his hand for Iker who’s landing next to him. They’re leaning on the statue to watch the celebration from above, just the two of them.

 

_“Hey! Those two were cheating! They got VIP seat on Cibeles shoulder!”_ Thomas grumbled as the camera recording David and Iker.

_“_ Thomas, your parachute! _”_ Bastian shouted as the other guy hadn’t opened his parachute when he should have.

“I’m sorry, I can’t hear you!!” Thomas shouted through the air.

“Your parachute, dumbass!” Lukas gestured at his own parachute.

Finally, it’s only Raúl and Guti in the helicopter aside from the pilots. When Guti refused him to go skydiving, Raúl forced him to tandem skydive. Guti was cursing Sergio inside for initiating this, “Absolutely, no, Raúl! You can’t even stand up by yourself!” Guti grabbed him by the arms and locked him in the eyes, “I’m not gonna risk you.”

Raúl was putting on a harness, and shoved the parachute at Guti, eyes full of determination, “I’m going through the game to the end, Chema. You’re not gonna stand in my way to do it, and you’re gonna come with me.”

Guti had never been good at denying Raúl. So in the end he agreed, he put on the parachute and attached the harness Raúl’s wearing on him. Guti walked them to the door, one hand braced on the frame. He didn’t like this idea. Raúl caressed his face and turned it for a kiss. Guti was so lost in the kiss he didn’t notice when Raúl pushed against the wall of helicopter, sending both of out and fall. Guti was shocked and cried out, “Puta madre, Raúl!”

 

_“Finally they made the jump! That’s a very romantic kiss, Raúl!”_

Thomas was loud enough using the speaker that Guti could hear that, “What did you call romantic, zounderkite?! That was horrendous and idiotic! What if I forget the parachute?!”

Raúl turned his head, touching the side of Guti’s face, and kissed him to shut him up.

Guti hummed into the kiss, “idiotic, very idiotic, but sexy,” kissing back with so much passion, “very sexy.”

Raúl looked down, it’s time. “Chema, the parachute,” he reminded.

Guti cursed as he opened the parachute, “Damn, you’re lucky I love you, Raúl.”

Raúl chuckled, “I love you too, Chema.”

 

 

Arbeloa threw a smirk at Steven, “You’re ready for the big finale?”

Steven grinned, “This is going to be hard.”

“Nah, we’ll make it in the first try, ready?”

Steven nodded, “Unhook the grapnel!” They circled around and headed straight for two poles on the roof of one of the buildings of their university. “One.. Two… Pull!” The helicopter soar at a steep angle. They shouted out. Steven could feel the weight attached to the helicopter, but out of his excitement he had to ask, “Did we get it?!”

“We got it!”

 

 

 

Mourinho was giving his speech as the head of this year’s game, congratulating the teams who were doing the free fall. He suddenly cursed in the middle of his speech when he saw the helicopter flew back across the field, carrying a banner. “What the fuck, Pep! I won’t marry you!”

If the ‘Marry me, Jose Mourinho’ banner floating in the air hadn’t turned all heads up before, now Mourinho’s deviation of his speech not only turned all heads up, but answered the question in them of who was behind the proposal.

Guardiola was standing in front of one of the building opposite the rostrum where Mourinho was giving his speech. Now Mourinho was walking towards him with full of wrath. When Mourinho threw all kinds of insults at him, he just calmly said, “You lost the bet, so you have to say yes.”

“Cris wins the game, so no, I say no.”

“Piqué wins too. So you’re gonna have to say yes.”

“But that was not the question.”

Cameras were on them now, and they’re projected on the big screens on the buildings surrounding the field. Guardiola drew out a microphone from his jacket, handing it to Mourinho. “What was the question?”

“You knew I was only going to ask you once.” Mourinho warned but grabbed the microphone any way.

“I think you’re gonna ask again.”

Mourinho spoke through the microphone so everyone could hear him, “Josep Guardiola, you careless bastard, I can lecture you of how reckless you are making proposal a bet you can barely win—” Guardiola rolled his eyes, but let him continued, “Because it’s a lose-lose situation you made. If you lose, you lose, if you win, you’re stuck with me, the special one, and my extraordinary greatness that would make you feel ordinary and inferior—” more eye-rolling. “But it’s true that marriage is a bet, it’s something with no guarantee or certainty, it’s a leap of faith, and taking the leap means you’re ready to give everything and lose everything—you lose, me? I win, I always win—and if you’re ready,…” Mourinho let it hanging for a few seconds, knew how Guardiola was dying waiting for him to ask—”you can always say yes anytime you want.”

Instead of answering, Guardiola took the microphone from Mourinho, threw it on the grass, creating a buzz, and grabbed his face to kiss him.

_“Whoa, is that a yes?”_ Thomas jumped in excitement, “ _We knew it! We knew it!_ ”

Guardiola pulled from the kiss and glared at Thomas who was standing there, reporting with his crew, _of course._ “Müller, shut up.”

Thomas had the gut to tease as Guardiola was about to continue the kiss, “Ooh, shut me up,”

“I have no intention to ‘shut _you_ up’!”

 

Steven watched the scene from the screens and glanced at Alvaro, “Ready for round two?”

“Oh yes,” They headed straight to two poles on another building across the earlier one. “By the way, have we gotten rid the first banner?!” he shouted through the roar of the rotor.

“Holy shit!” Steven remembered, “Pull up! Pull up!” They pulled up and got rid of the first banner and unhook another grapnel hook. They circled around back towards the university and headed for the two poles. Steven commanded, “One.., Two,.. Pull!” They successfully took another banner on air.

 

Zidane was giving his speech as the person in charge of the winning team, he didn’t even notice what’s on the banner until Sergio jumped at his back, “Happy birthday, Zizou!!” Sergio’s action was followed by the others and he was thrown with champagne and snow. Sergio was still clinging on his back and peppering him with kisses. Sergio finally jumped off his back, but that was when a cake hit him in the face. Everyone was laughing.

Zidane wiped the cake of his face, and took a bottle of champagne from Marcelo’s hand splashing it on his face to clean and his already wet clothes. He took a few gulps from the bottle before putting it down on the rostrum and straightened up, “Thank you for all of your affection,” he said to the camera, “But this is not my birthday.” Then something made him suspicious, “Who’s behind this?”

In front of him, Lucho was laughing his ass off, “The cake on your face! You should look at it!” Lucho motioned at the screens that were playing it back when the cake his face. “Happy birthday!”

“It’s not funny.” Zidane was more annoyed at Lucho mocking him than the actual birthday prank.

“Yes, it is, you’re soaking in wet and covered with sugar.” Lucho was still laughing, “Your nice suit ruined at the day of your winning.”

“I can always take it off,” Zidane blurted out and soon regretted it.

The laughter started to die down, but the mocking face was still there, “What? Is it nicer down there?”

_“OOOH… Headbutt him, Zizou!”_

“Thomas!” Xabi warned.

And for what felt like an eternity there was only silence. Zizou and Lucho were glaring at each other. Everyone else is dreading the headbutt. Zidane finally broke the silence, “Nah, not for him.”

 

And the whole university was back celebrating. It’s time for lifting the trophy celebration. The champions were lifting the trophy one by one with confetti flying around them while Mourinho announced something about the trophy “Due to the cup of the king incident, we have modified our own cup so that it would be more unbreakable—” and that’s when Sergio drop the trophy, _again_. “It’s still on trial.”

 


	13. Epilogue: End of The Year Show

It was raining. The camera was adjusting, zooming in and out, Arbeloa was dressed nicely, standing on the side of the field, microphone on one hand while the other holding a transparent umbrella. “Alright, we’re on!”

Alvaro smiled wildly at the camera, “Hello D.I.V.E. University, after the inappropriate comment about assault by our interim reporter, I am Alvaro Arbeloa taking over the D.I.V.E Channel once again. And in this New Year’s Eve, we will see what some of us have been doing following The D.I.V.E Game. We’ll start with an interview with the amazing Zlatan Ibrahimovic,”

The camera zoomed out to reveal Zlatan besides Alvaro, “Zlatan, you didn’t win this year’s game, but some say you still win it in some way, what happened?”

“First, they, you included, won the game because they’re the one who brought home a stolen painting, a damaged stolen cup, and a briefcase of junks of paper, and they look more heroic with tears and blood. Meanwhile, I did everything faster and without getting my hands dirty and I got the treasure. It’s not as invaluable as it was supposed to be, but still a lot of money.”

“What’s the treasure?”

“It’s just a few grams of germs, and yeah, it’s very expensive. So yes, you can say I’m still winning.”

“Sure you are, they even said you’re the one beating all the enemies outside our university?”

“Yes, you know, because no one can threaten our university, and absolutely, no one can beat me. I even beat the Spy.C.E. girl. She tried to take my treasure from me.”

“Spy.C.E. girl?”

“The spy, from Spy Cotes Evil.”

“Is it true that you killed her because she almost killed Gerard?”

“Who said I killed her?” But Zlatan didn’t clarify that, “I didn’t know if she almost killed Gerard, and even if I knew—well I got nothing on Gerard, didn’t I make myself clear at the last interview?” Zlatan gave him an intimidating look.

“It wasn’t me.” Alvaro wasn’t the one who interviewed Zlatan back then, but he heard that after rumours of Zlatan and Gerard dating spread out, and everyone started questioning Zlatan’s sexuality, the guy held an orgy involving the girl who interviewed him, her sister, and many other girls, right in front of Gerard when he invited him for a date, when really, he only invited him to watch an orgy before dumping him. If it was any other person but Gerard Alvaro would’ve pitied them. Zlatan had an extreme way of dealing with the rumour of him being gay, unlike Guti who responded to such rumour by kissing Raúl in front of everyone, posting the picture to show off his gorgeous boyfriend.

Alvaro tried to change the topic, “Zlatan, you’ve done great job in the game. Do you want to say anything about how you did all of that by your own?”

“I’m not gonna tell you my secret, but sure, if you want to know,” Zlatan gave an intimidating look to the camera, “I’m Zlatan.”

“That’s it?” Alvaro was expecting something more of details.

“That’s it.” He saw the disappointment in Alvaro’s face, “Look, Zlatan doesn’t share, goodbye,” and with that, he left the interview.

Alvaro shrugged and looked back at the camera, “Alright, next, some of you might have been wondering what happened to Guardiola and Mourinho or even Zizou and Lucho. Well, we were wondering too, and guess what?” The camera started zooming out but there’s no one else but Alvaro this time, “We have no idea either. No, we can’t get an interview with any of them. It’s top secret, and we’re all left with our imagination.”

“So back to The Game, we all know the tragic news of a heroic story from Raúl,” the camera was shaking, turning here and there, “Not you, Chori,” he said to the cameraman, “Hey, come back to me.” The camera was back to Alvaro, “Story of the legendary Raúl who fought a helicopter like a badass and broke his leg, what happened to him? Is it right that he’s not going to participate in the next year’s game? And how about Iker Casillas’ boyfriend who turns out to be a spy? And have you heard about the messiest breakup of the year? Or have you heard about the amazing Christmas gift inspired by one incident in the game? And what’s all about the so called él presidente? And to answer all of your questions, we’re gonna get to our next session: The Bedswervers Tour!” Alvaro gestured enthusiastically when he named the session before turned a disappointed face someone behind the camera, “Xabi, that sounds terrible,” he added, “and disgusting,” he added again, “and creepy.”

Behind the camera, Xabi looked desperate, “It’s not my idea, and it sounds way more disgusting before, and I’ve suggested you another name for it.”

“Yeah, but it’s so hard to say!” Alvaro protested, he tried to remember the name, “Like fibergibberish something.”

“Flibbertigibbet,” Xabi corrected, “It means a nosy, gossipy person—”

“Sounds like Thomas.”

“—or flighty or frivolous person.” Xabi finished.

“Still sounds like Thomas.”

“Who do you think named it?”  

Alvaro extended his hands in exasperated gesture, “What is wrong with ‘Date on Fire’?”

“Nothing, you can use it if you want.” Xabi felt hands wrapped around him and a chin resting on his shoulder, he turned his head to see Steven.

“Hey, Xabs.”

“Steven, I’m filming live.” Steven made an approving sound. “What are you doing here?” Xabi turned around without breaking free from Steve’s arms, and that’s when he saw Fernando. “You brought Fernando too?”

“He wants to see the show live too,” Steven explained.

“It _is_ live.” Xabi was about to rant about how Steven was distracting him, but that’s when the real distraction came, Steven shut him up with a kiss.

Fernando, who feel some empathy for Xabi, was about to tell Steven to stop distracting his boyfriend, but then someone jumped on his back, surprising him. Fernando turned his head to see who it was and probably scold the person for almost breaking his back, but before he could open his mouth his lips was met with a kiss from Antoine.

The camera turned to the two couples who were now kissing passionately.

“Now I know why it’s called bedswerver,” Alvaro commented.

 

\--

 

Alvaro was standing in front of the university’s swimming pool. It was a very large infinite swimming pool on the top of the roof, so large that it almost felt like a lake. “Here I’m taking you to see the most amazing gift of the year—” he heard someone made a splash in the swimming pool. “Somebody is bombing my take, aren’t they?” he said to the camera. He turned around to see Cristiano getting in and out of the water with silly face on the camera. “Cristiano!”

Cris swam to the edge of the pool, got out of it, and walked away from the camera.

“Back to the amazing gift—” this time, a loud crashing sound in the water cut him off.

A few seconds later Cesc showed up beside him, all wet in his swimming trunk. “I was going to make a dramatic entrance, but I guess I still have much to learn.”

“Baby, you’re okay?” Robin ran to Cesc, a worried look on his face.

“Yeah, I’m okay,” Cesc assured him. “You still have to teach me to ride the jet ski, though.”

“And yep, that’s the gift of the year.” Alvaro said to the camera and stepped aside, revealing the jet ski in the swimming pool. “You guys really ruined the surprise.”

“Should we do it again?” Cesc offered.

“No, it’s live.”

“Oh,” Cesc looked sorry and didn’t know what to do. “Well, I guess—”

“Well, I guess we should go back skiing,” Robin finished and kissed him as he led to the swimming pool.

Alvaro eyes went wide as he saw what the couple was doing in front of the camera, “Hey! It thought you were going to go skiing, not skinny dipping!” he turned to the camera, “Is that even allowed here? Hey, turn it off! We don’t want anything like that in our show!”

 

\--

 

Alvaro was standing in front of a door, he hit the bell, “First room,” he sighed after saying that, “Oh my God, this is really sounds like bedswerver or flibbertigibbet.”

“Who’s that?” a voice from the room call. “Forget it, you can’t come in! We’re busy!”

Alvaro held out a key card in front of the camera, “Don’t tell anyone, but I can get into any room,” he put the card on the reader, “Fuck, I’ve just said that on a live tv, great.” He turned to the camera, “I’ve never done this before, and will never do this for bad purpose.” He considered before adding, “outside this show.”

Alvaro opened the door and found Raúl and Guti lying on the bed under the cover, both shirtless, Guti was leaning towards Raúl. “Are you two doing _it_?” he asked dumbly.

Raúl teased by asking, “What’s _it_?” while Guti snapped at him, “Well, we’re about to, then you came out of nowhere!”

Raúl laughed at that and how it changed Alvaro’s expression. “No, he’s just asking what I want for dinner. He’s been very sweet to me lately.” Raúl gave Guti a quick peck on the lips. “Come in, Alvaro. Let’s do the interview.”

Guti got up from the bed, he’s wearing jeans. “Raúl, you’re naked down there.”

“The camera can’t see it.”

Guti started making his way towards the kitchen, “Put on something decent, I don’t like sharing you.”

“Still sharing the food?” Raúl asked, didn’t bother to get up from the bed. When Alvaro and Albiol approached him for the interview he threw the camera a coy look and without warning, reveal the cover.

Alvaro groaned, “Raúl!”

Raúl laughed out loud.

“Don’t ever do that again!”

“Why?” Raúl asked innocently, “I’m not naked.”

“You’re not decent either,” Alvaro turned to the camera, “Chori, don’t keep the camera there! Shoot up close to his face.” He turned back to Raúl, “Your boyfriend is gonna kill me, so I’m gonna be quick. How’s your foot?”

“Fine,” Raúl said. “Well, not really, but it’s getting better. Oh, and Guti is really sweet taking care of me. I mean, I can do everything by myself, but I wouldn’t refuse the affection and extra attention,” he smirked.

Guti shouted from the kitchen, “Oh, you’re enjoying this!”

“How about the rumours? Is it true the two of you are not going to participate in the next game?”

Raúl started to explain, “Well, we shall see. It’s too early to say that, it’s still a year later. We have to see how things going in the future and—”

Guti suddenly jumped into the bed and kissed Raúl’s cheek, finishing his sentence, “And we’re busy.” He’s nuzzling into Raúl’s stubble, making Raúl laughed.

“Busy for…?”

Guti glared at Alvaro, “Busy for this,” he straddled Raúl and kissed him, open mouthed. Without stopping the kiss, he told Alvaro to go, “You’ve interrupted us, now fuck off.”

Raúl stole a look at the camera, “Unless you want to watch—”

Alvaro turned back right away, “No! no way!” he had reached the door when he realized, “Raúl! Get your ass here!”

Guti shouted from the bed, “No! he got his ass where I want it to be!”

There was a smacking sound and a loud moan coming from the bedroom. Alvaro didn’t even want to turn back to see what it was, “Not him!” he was starting to get frustrated, “Raúl Albiol, stop recording that and get out of here!”

 

\---

 

They were in front of another door. “Alright, for anticipation, we’ll ask the host first,” Alvaro said to the camera as he knocked the door.

“Who’s there?”

“D.I.V.E. Channel.”

“Come in, it’s not locked.” There was another voice in the room, “How come it’s not locked? I thought it’s automatically locked?” “I’ve just press the unlock the door key on the bedside table.” “They got you that?!” “What, you don’t have one in your room? By the way, you can come in,”

“Alright, but first, are you decent?”

A pause, “Yeah, sure I’m decent.”

Alvaro opened the door and he was welcomed with snow blowing out of the room through the door. The room was a whole mess.

 

 

The whole room was filled with snow. There were two snow forts on the opposite sides of the room. There’s even a snowman in the middle of the room with ridiculously expensive winter clothing. Iker and David were spread out in the snow on the floor, wearing less expensive winter clothing than the snowman, David’s wearing a hat and scarf, and Iker was wearing his goalkeeper gloves instead of a regular winter gloves. They were making snow angels, giggling like little kids playing in the snow. Iker was playing with David’s hair while David was looking at him with so much love in his eyes.

It looked so intimate that Alvaro almost didn’t want to interrupt them, but at the same time the whole scene looked ridiculous. “It looks like a lot of fun, but what are you two grown men doing?”

David was throwing snowballs at Iker’s face, “I tried to wake him up to play in the snow, but he kept sleeping like a bear, so I brought the snow into the room.”

Iker started to attack back with more snow, “Yeah, you splash me with a pail of snow.”

David threw another snowball at Iker, “But it got you wake up. We’re playing cats and dogs, you attacked me but there wasn’t a lot of snow. So we’ve been bringing snow inside the room all day, fooling around.”

“So I guess, even after all that happened, you two are good?”

“Oh yeah,” Iker agreed.

“I’ve left the spying thing,” David said to the camera.

“And I finally know why my boyfriend seems to be so obsessed with a particular straw and talks to it on a regular basis.” Iker threw a snow ball at David’s face. “Back then I thought I should compete with a fucking straw.”

David got up a bit and withstood on his elbow. “You knew all this time?!” He thought he had hid it well.

“Of course I knew, you weirdo.” Iker rolled his eyes. “You talk to a straw, who wouldn’t notice?”

David laid back on the snow, “Did anyone else know?”

“Doesn’t matter, _now_ everyone knows,” Iker gestured at the camera.

David only seemed to realize that and splashed some snow at Iker’s face, “I’m going to bury you in the snow!”

Iker grinned, “I’ve won the snowball war though.”

“What? No, you did not!” David sat up to hit Iker with more snowballs.

“Want a rematch?”

“Are you challenging me?”

Instead of answering, Iker ran behind one of the snow forts and started throwing snowballs at David. David ran to the other snow fort and attacked back. Iker finally leaped out of the fort, ran, and crashed David on the other side of the room. David was protesting but then Iker shut him up with a kiss and David melted into it. “Iker, I’m cold.”

Iker buried his head on David’s shoulder, laughing, “You’re the one who brought the snow inside.”

David pouted, “Make fireplace or something, I’m really cold.”

Instead, Iker pressed harder on David’s body, covering it with his, tangling their hands tightly and brought them over David’s head. Iker’s nuzzling David’s nose, “Or I can warm you up.”

David hummed, “That feels nice.” He started kissing Iker’s lips. He let out a weak moan.

“Here?” Iker asked as he kept kissing David.

David nodded, “Yeah, just use the snow, there’s a lot of it.”

Iker pulled away from the kiss, “You’re sure? It’s going to be really cold.”

David grabbed the back of his neck to pull him back for a kiss, “You’ll warm me up.”

Iker groaned into the kiss, he started undoing David’s pants, lips attacking David’s neck.

 

Alvaro started pushing Albiol out of the room as he said to the camera, “I guess we can say the spy had decided to leave his past life and live a new one with his boyfriend, love conquers all, now we shall go.”

 

Iker and David didn’t even seem to notice Arbeloa and Albiol, they were too lost in each other from the start to care if they were recorded having sex for the whole university to see in a live show. Iker pulled David’s pants down to his knees. David groaned and cursed as the cold snow piercing his skin. Iker started whispering sweet nothings and kissing him to calm him down, hand started working on his cock to distract him from the cold. “Fuck! Iker, so cold.” But the painful moan soon turned into pleasure moan.

Iker pulled his glove off with his teeth and David thought that was hot, before Iker touched his hole with cold fingers, “Fuck, Iker! You can warn me first!”

“Sorry,” Iker apologized, “You’re sure you wanna do this with snow?”

“Fuck, yeah, just do it already.” David should’ve known he had just given Iker a consent by saying that, he didn’t anticipate the immediate cold snow applied near his hole sliding inside, he cursed loudly. Iker pushed a finger inside and it sent all kinds of sensation inside him David thought he’s going numb.

Iker started opening him slowly and it started to feel warmer and better. He started moaning and begging for more, “Please.”

Iker started undoing his own pants, let out his dick and rubbed against David’s hole and slowly pushed in. He moaned at the sensation. David was warm inside, but the snow he used to open him had made the wall inside cold. “Damn, David.”

“Move,” David grumbled.

Iker started to move slowly, he found his pace, but then David was begging him to move faster, Iker slammed his prostrate head on and David’s words become incoherent, he grabbed onto Iker’s shoulder tighter as he came, moaning Iker’s name.

Iker kept thrusting, seeking his release, David tightened his hole and Iker came inside him, moaning in pleasure. He slumped down, burying his head in David’s crook. They both laughed, exhausted.

Iker was on top of him, didn’t even try to pull out, his hair brushing David’s face and David could smell it, the scent he had grown used to and loved to much. David was still trying to slow down his breath, he was still high from the orgasm, the snow around them had started to melt. The floor to ceiling window showed the beautiful colourful sky of afterglow. David’s savouring the moment, it was perfect. “I love you.” Those words flowing out of his mouth easily, without him even thinking.

Iker tensed up, and for a dreadful moment David thought Iker would pull away and rejected him, putting a tragic end to the beautiful day. Iker looked up at him, his brown eyes were warm, radiating with so much passion, smiling, he landed a quick kiss on David’s lips, “Love you too, Guapo.”

 

\--

 

“Finally, normal interviewees!” Alvaro sighed as he sat down. So far, this was the only room where the owners have prepared for the interview. There were two chairs for the interviewee, and two for him and the cameraman, there were two cups of hot chocolate for them, and there’s even a nice Christmas tree in the background. And the most important thing, they were dressed. In normal sweaters.

“Yeah, I’ve seen your previous interviews live,” Cristiano said as he sat down on a chair, holding a wine glass of water.

 _He just always has to do it in style, huh?_ But Alvaro decided to not say anything about it. Cristiano probably doing it for a good reason, this show needed to be less flibbertiggebberish or whatever.

“I promise you,” Cristiano said, “Ricky and I are far more refined.” He shook his head, “I still can’t believe Raúl and Iker would do something like that in front of a camera.”

Kaká—Ricky—came into view and sat on the chair next to Cristiano. “What about us? What would we do on the camera?”

Alvaro took it from there, “Just a quick interview. So, Kaká, you’re here now?”

“Yeah, I’ve applied, and they said I can start the courses next week.”

“Great, nice to hear that.” He turned to Cristiano, “So, Cris, is it true that the breakup has been messy? I mean, you and Sergio had a thing too before, and then the crazy ex-boyfriend, the father and a legacy also involved, the breakup itself was a helicopter tragedy almost coupled with a bomb tragedy, not to mention your ex is a fucked-up flibbertigibbet.” _Wow he just said it right._

Cristiano laughed at that, “He’s not that bad, really, you should make up with him.”

“Never.”

Cris continued, “But no, really, it wasn’t that bad. I think it was for the best. Gerard and I are good. Sergio and I are fine, we’re never exclusive anyway, I did get a bit pissed off at first that he was so quick to get with Geri after we broke up, but it’s okay, we’re good now. I think Sergio had always loved Geri, and before you say anything, Gerard is a good guy, really, I wish them well. In fact, I kind of ship them now, but don’t tell them,” Cris warned.

“Cris, you’ve just said it on a live tv,” Kaká pointed out. Cristiano cursed.

“Alright, enough with all the nice things about Piqué and your one true pairing. I still can’t believe he reaps flower after sowing wind.”

“You’re saying I’m just wind?” Cristiano looked offended.

“No, Cris, you’re not just wind and you’re more than flower,” Kaká tried to console him. “You’re kale,” and they both laughed at that. Alvaro silently prayed Cris wouldn’t show off his packs of kale to the camera. But then Kaká encouraged Cris to do just that, “Show them what kale had made of you, Cris.”

And Cris started rolling up his sweater, Alvaro quickly interrupted, “Whoa… I thought you would be more refined?”

Cris shrugged and after teasing the camera with a glimpse of his skin, he straightened up his sweater.

 _He’s not gonna ruin this one, at least one of the interview should go well._ “Now the ultimate question: Are you two together?”

Both Cristiano and Kaká laughed at that, “No,” they said simultaneously.

“What a shame. You two aren’t a thing?”

“Is that the same question?” Cris asked.

“No, this one is _a thing._ ” Kaká pointed out. “But to answer your question…”

“Yes,” they both said.

“What is it guys? Yes or no? You’re killing us here!”

Cristiano’s laugh finally died down, “Yes, we’re together.”

“And no, we’re not gonna make out in front of the camera,” Kaká added.

“What a shame. Alright, that’s all for now because we’re running out of question. Anything you want to say?”

Cris was the one to say, “Merry Christmas,”

“Christmas is over…”

Cris continued anyway, “—and I wish a good year—”

“for everybody,” Kaká finished and waved at the camera awkwardly, making Cris laughed.

\---

 

Gerard was lying on the couch, next to a Christmas tree and Sergio was sitting on the floor among a mountain of gifts. They were unwrapping the gifts one by one, and Gerard was broadcasting the whole thing on his periscope despite Sergio’s protest. _“Just pretend I’m a journalist reporting a celebration of Christmas and New Year.”_ He’d been recording precious moments, one was Sergio unwrapping a gift of giant horse plushies and immediately threw himself on it. “Tell us how you feel about the gift,”

Sergio mumbled into the plushies, “Comfy.” He hummed. “I’m never gonna move, never.”

“Careful there, you’re suffocating your identical twin.”

Sergio only threw him some plastic from the wrapping and snuggled closer into the plushies.

In the end, of course he moved to unwrap more gifts. When another gift was unwrapped Gerard laughed his ass off.

Sergio groaned, “Again, Gerard? Really?”

“Hey, it’s not me who gave the presents.” Gerard was still laughing, recording Sergio’s reaction that he found so hilarious. “You seem to have a thing for dropping things.”

“Yeah, everyone just put the gifts in a box with caution fragile label.” Sergio threw the wrapping away.

“Handle them with care, Sergio,” Gerard teased.

Sergio threw a ball of wrapping at his face. “I mean, who the fuck label a pack of condoms with fragile label?!” he tipped the box over so the contains fell over the floor, so Gerard could see it. It was packs of condoms.

Gerard laughed seeing that, he rolled over forward, getting on his stomach, “I don’t know, Sergio. Maybe it’s the fragile type, easy to break.”

Sergio tore one of the condom packaging with his teeth, holding it in front of his face for Gerard to see. “It won’t even fit you!”

Gerard stopped laughing, “Sergio! We’re live!”

“You’re still periscoping the whole thing?!” Sergio asked in disbelief, “No way! Now that everyone knows—” he was stopped by a ball of paper wrapping thrown at his mouth.

“Who is that from anyway?” Gerard sat up and reached for a tear of the wrapping to find out.

“Surely it’s not anyone you’ve slept with,” Sergio grumbled as he looked for the name of the sender on the box.

“Maybe they’ve slept with you,” Gerard turned over the tear of the wrapping, still searching for a name or message.

Sergio noticed one of the condom wrap had different colour, he reached for it and tore it open, there was a paper inside it, a bit tore as he tore the wrapping. “You have to tell me all the details xxx *wink*" he read.

"Well you should tell whoever it was that their gift is useless for the details," Gerard suggested.

Sergio knew who it was, "It's Guti."

"What?! Do you tell that guy your sex life on a regular basis?"

"No!" Sergio denied. "Wait, is the periscope still on?" Gerard checked his phone that was laid on the couch. Sergio knew it's still on, he was scandalized, "Gerard!"

"Alright, you know what, leave it, open the next gift." Gerard didn't turn off the periscope.

"Turn it off!" Sergio attacked him with packages of condoms.

"No, I want to keep this moment," Gerard insisted. "I want to memorize every moment with you, so I can replay it when you're away, so I'll always be with you, so I will never remember a moment without you in it."

That sounded really sweet, really, but Sergio still couldn't understand why Gerard should do it with a periscope, he could just do it with a regular video cam. "What's the use of 'keeping the moment' when you're not even in the moment!" Sergio threw an empty box at him.

Gerard fended off the box. "Stop it, you look childish."

"And you're the one to talk."

Sergio wasn't happy, Gerard could see that. He stood his phone on the back of the couch, so it could record them without him holding it. He took the gift he had been hiding behind a pillow on the couch. He leaned down and kissed Sergio on the cheek, handing the gift, "This is for you, happy new year."

Sergio was stunned. He looked up at Gerard, then the gift in his hands.

"Open it," Gerard waited.

Sergio started to unwrap the gift. Inside was a box with another fragile label. He gave a glare at Gerard who now looked rather sorry.

"You really should handle this one with care, I mean it" Gerard explained.

If Gerard didn't look so serious Sergio would've not taken him seriously. He opened the box carefully. Before he could register what it was, something jumped at him and almost hit him in the face if he hadn't caught it with his hands. His eyes were closed in reflex and when he opened them he couldn't believe what he's seeing.

In his hands was the little ball-shaped white robot with blue light as an eye. "Blau!" Sergio was so happy he couldn't believe he's holding the real thing in his hands. He looked up at Gerard with hopeful eyes, _I'm not dreaming, am I?_

Gerard was looking at him with happiness, his smile was warm, the blue eyes reflected the gratefulness Sergio was feeling.

Sergio ran his hand around the ball, "He's more white than blue, you know. Maybe we should name him Blanco instead."

Gerard shook his head immediately, "No, it reminds me of Raúl."

Sergio threw his head back and laughed, "He's partly Raúl's grandson."

Gerard shivered in horror, "What does that make Guti? The grumpy grandmother? I love our baby, so no, there's no way that grouch is gonna be the grandma of my beloved baby—"

Sergio froze at the word _our baby_ , not that they never called the ball robot _baby_ before, but the idea of having babies with Gerard was just— he quickly shook the thought away.

Gerard continued chattering, "Why did we name him Blau in the first place?"

"Because of his eye," Sergio was finally back to their conversation. _It reminds me of yours. So does the name._

"It was red before," Gerard pointed out, "We might as well name him Blaugrana. Blaugrana Blanco."

Sergio smiled as Gerard kept talking about name meanings. It was as if they're debating what to name their baby and Sergio was lost in the fantasy, _Is it how it feels like if they're ever going to have a baby and was about to name them?_ Sergio put Blau down and jumped onto Gerard's lap, wrapping his arms around Gerard's neck, and kissed him on the lips, he couldn't stop smiling, "How did you get him back?"

"David gave me the pieces he picked up, I asked help from some people to put him back together. We even added some more technology. It was a hard time and felt like an eternity, but it's worth it. I know how much he means to you, I've grown to love him for only a few hours in my life and I know you love him too." Sergio was smiling that smile that melted Gerard's heart, and those warm brown eyes were drowning him in seas of reveries, "God, how far I've come to love you." Gerard smiled and kissed him, It wasn't planned. He chuckled at how easy it came out of his mouth when he thought saying it would make him dread the reaction from Sergio. He almost said it back on the helicopter, but he got nothing to lose back then.

Sergio laughed with him, cupping his face in his hands, pressing their forehead together and nuzzling his nose, "I love you too." He couldn't believe he had forgotten saying it once Gerard had come back to consciousness back on the helicopter.

They laughed together, lost in each other's eyes. They started making out. Sergio ravished Gerard's mouth as Gerard's hands roaming over his back, the touch making Sergio moaned into Gerard's mouth. Gerard was the first to come to his senses, "Wait, Blau's there."

Sergio stopped and looked at the little ball who looked confused at what they're doing, "You're saying it's inappropriate for doing it in front of a child?"

Gerard stilled, "I was saying he's got a camera now so—"

"Don't you say it's connected to your periscope!"

"No, but—"

Sergio cut him off when he saw the phone on the back of the couch, "Oh my God, you're still recording! Gerard!" he slid off Gerard's lap and took Blau in his arm, wanted to take the little ball to their room, "Geri, you've given me the best gift ever, really, but this is—"

That reminded Gerard of something, "Oh that's not the only gift."

Sergio raised an eyebrow, "Well he's not gonna watch you giving me your other gift."

Gerard was confused at first. "Well I'll give you that too, but that was not what I meant."

Sergio put Blau down on the floor and sat next to Gerard, "What is it?"

"Remember the blue germ you found in the sea? That I gave to Zlatan?"

Sergio put his hand on Gerard's knee, "Geri, we've talked about this. I've told you, it's okay, alright? I don't need some expensive germ. There's no treasure? It's okay. The treasure is just you? You're even more than that, I'll treasure you. You don't have to buy me some treasure in the world, okay?" he put his hand on the side of Gerard's face, "The memory of being in that sea with you worth more than all the treasure in the world, and I've got you. And those eyes of yours? They shine brighter and more beautiful than any germs in the world."

Gerard put his hand over Sergio's bringing it to his lips, "What if I tell you that there _is_ treasure?"

Sergio looked puzzled, "But there's nothing—"

"It's inside Blau, plated inside. It's one of the rarest material on this planet. We've extracted it. I've—" Gerard was uncertain to continue, "I've modified it." He looked down, "I don't know if you're gonna like it. I thought I'll keep it for later but—"

Sergio caressed his cheek, "Gerard? What is it?"

Gerard looked up at Sergio's eyes. They were together. They cared about each other, and now Gerard's sure they loved each other, but this felt a bit too far, too soon. Not that he doubted their love, but still he didn't know how Sergio would react. He gestured at Blau. The ball jumped onto the couch. Gerard caressed the ball and it unfolded, revealing something inside it.

Sergio blinked. His fingers were shaking as he reached for it. He took it, holding it between his and Gerard's face. "Ger..."

Gerard started babbling, "You don't have to say anything. It doesn't have to mean anything if you don't want to. And if you don't like it—"

Sergio cut him off, "No, I like it."

"You do?" Gerard's eyes were hopeful.

"I do, I—" Sergio was lost for words. "Gerard, are you asking me—"

"I didn't mean it!" Gerard retracted, "No, I mean it! But if it's too soon—I mean it was there and I thought if I could have something invaluable and so rare on this earth I would turn it into—" he tried to explain it with his hands, "and if there's anyone I would give it to, it's you, I mean—" he sighed, _why is this so hard to explain,_ "Fuck, Sergio, I—"

"Gerard, do you love me?" Sergio asked.

"Yes."

"Do you want to be with me forever?"

"Yes."

"Don't we have everything now?"

"Yes?"

"Would this change anything?"

"No." Gerard shrugged, "Maybe?" he lifted his hands, "Fuck, I don't know."

"Does it—" Sergio was not sure how to put it, "scare you?"

"Hell yes." Gerard paused, "I mean—" his words were lost as Sergio kissed his lips.

"Gerard, I love you, and if there's anyone in this world for me, it's you. I didn't think about it in the near future, but it's always been my dream. And if there's anyone I build this dream with, it's gonna be you." Sergio smiled, "I'm ready when you are."

Gerard chuckled, "I don't know if I ever gonna be ready for something like this."

Sergio leaned for a kiss, "Well, I guess we just have to take the leap of faith, don't we? I can't wait forever."

Gerard met the kiss and pulled Sergio closer, "Me neither."

Sergio gave him a flirtatious smile, "Now where's my other gift?" he asked between the kiss.

"I've just given you two, you still ask for more?"

"Fuck, Gerard, new year is coming," Sergio started kissing Gerard's neck, "Fuck me into the new year."

Gerard laughed, "You're not gonna ride that new static bike into the new year then?"

"Nah, I'll just ride you into the new year." Sergio moaned as Gerard kissed him, "My stallion."

They quickly got rid of their clothes. Trying their best not to break the kiss. Gerard flipped Sergio on his stomach, peppering his back with kisses. "Where's the lube gift?"

"The flavoured one? Somewhere in the mountains of gifts and wrappings?" Sergio moaned as Gerard's finger teasing his hole. "I don't know. Besides, those flavoured chemicals are not good for—" he moaned again when Gerard licked his opening.

"I can always use something natural, like the one in the hotel—"

Just thinking back about it was turning him on. He pushed into the couch, looking for some friction, but then Gerard grabbed his hips and pulled him up until he got on his knees. "Fuck, Gerard, I'm ready, I'm still loose from this morning, just do it," he bucked his ass on Gerard's crotch.

"So needy," Gerard chuckled at how impatience Sergio was. He was lining himself against Sergio's opening, but changed his mind at the last second and sat on the couch. Sergio groaned. "Ride me."

Sergio got to a position and straddled Gerard, teasing Gerard's cock by rubbing his entrance against it. _His turn._ Gerard finally lost his patience and shoved him down onto the shaft. Both groaned at the sensation. Sergio's moan was between pain and pleasure. He let himself adjusted to it before started moving. Gerard started moving his hips up, thrusting as Sergio slammed himself down, hitting the spot that made Sergio moaned in pleasure. Gerard held Sergio, hands roaming over his back, licking and sucking the nipples as he worked his hips faster. The sound of their skin slapping and Sergio's moans got him move even wilder when suddenly a scream interrupted them.

"I forgot I shouldn't have used this key anymore!" Alvaro groaned.

"What the hell are you doing here?!" Gerard snapped as he moved Sergio off him, covering him with wraps of paper from the gifts they had opened. He used a pillow to cover himself.

"Oh, remember the interview we had a deal of?"

"I made the deal with Xabi, not you!" Gerard accused.

"Or you can do the interview with us!" Thomas offered enthusiastically. "As the heir of the university, Gerard, how are you feeling?"

"Awesome," Gerard gave a quick answer before adding, "and no, there's no problem about me being the heir, for now."

All heads turned to Thomas, Bastian, and Lukas who were at a corner of the room. "Since when have you been there?" Sergio asked.

Thomas shrugged, "Since the umpteenth 'Fragile, Don't Drop'?" Now everyone's laughing.

Except Sergio, whose eyes went wide at Bastian and Lukas' cameras, "You've been recording—"

"Oh yeah," Thomas confirmed, "But Gerard is recording too, remember?" Sergio's head went to the phone on the back of the couch, he was about to reach it when Thomas said, "You're right, that thing wouldn't fit—" Sergio threw the pillow on Gerard's lap at Thomas' face. Gerard quickly grabbed another pillow, blushing.

"Now turn off the cameras!" Gerard yelled as he turned off his phone. He started covering Sergio's body with pillows.

"What are you doing?" Sergio said beneath a pile of pillows.

"No one can see you, no one. I don't want to share you with anyone on a live tv." But none of the camera men seemed to turn off the camera.

When Gerard gave the Germans a glare, the two cameramen turned to film themselves kissing. Thomas protested because they should be filming Gerard and Sergio while Arbeloa protested because it's inappropriate for the show.

"I don't know how we're still hard, maybe it's the anger for being interrupted," Sergio said as he got rid of the pillows covering him and got on his knees on the couch, "It's near midnight, now fuck me!"

Gerard didn't know how Sergio now was the one who didn't care if there were cameras recording them. But he really needed that release too. He got rid of the pillows and lining himself up and pushed inside Sergio, both groaning.

The countdown started, _Ten!_ Sergio started moving his hips back, meeting Gerard's thrust. _Nine!_ He was moaning in pleasure as Gerard kept hitting his prostrate hard. _Eight!_ Gerard gripped Sergio's hips hard, surely would leave bruises. _Seven!_ Gerard pushed deeper and moved faster. _Six!_ Gerard slapped Sergio's ass and Sergio moaned in pleasure, burying his head in the couch. _Five!_ Sergio was so close, he gripped the base of his dick, he would wait until— _Four!_ Gerard's thrusts forced Sergio on his stomach, pounding Sergio hard into the couch, Sergio grasped his hand on the couch, trying to grip at something, he's on the brink. _Three!_ Sergio started clenching and unclenching his ass around Gerard. The tight muscles clenching around him was bringing him closer. _Two!_ Just a few more thrust. _One!_ Sergio released his grip on his dick as Gerard pushed deeper inside him, filling him up with his come, both moaning in pleasure as they came together.

The sounds of fireworks were so loud outside, from the floor to ceiling glass behind the couch, the could see the sky filled with all kinds of fireworks. They were catching their breath. Gerard slumped down on Sergio, both chuckling, Gerard played with Sergio's ear with his lips, "Happy new year."

Sergio turned his head to kiss him, "Happy new year."

"You seriously recorded all that?" Alvaro came into view.

"We too! We too!" Thomas informed gleefully. "We got all the angles!"

"What is this? A porn show?" Alvaro sighed, "Xabi will kill us."

"He's not gonna kill you. This is a great show you're hosting, Alvaro," Gerard said. "You host it very well, this is the biggest show of the year and they gave you this as a sent-off because you deserved it. I know sometimes the tone has been too much between us and we shouldn't have done it, but wherever you go I wish you well."

"What sent-off?!" Alvaro turned to him, "I'm not going anywhere!"

"Why would they give the show to you then?"

Sergio palmed his face at that rhetoric. Not the smartest one Gerard made. And he thought Gerard was finally being the bigger man. He's feeling another fight was about to happen.

"How about you?! I thought you were leaving?!" Alvaro snapped back.

"Nah," Sergio kissed Gerard softly and smiled, " _se queda_ "

"Come on, Alvaro, don't be so mad," Chori tried to distract him, he threw a gift to Alvaro from behind the camera, "For you."

Alvaro caught the two dolls tied together with bow. "A kangaroo?" he gave the camera a look.

"I got the kangaroo from Austria, it said 'there's no kangaroo in Austria'" Albiol told him.

Alvaro chuckled, "and the whale?"

"It's a pregnant whale." Gerard burst out of laughter when Albiol said that.

Alvaro glared at him but then decided to ignore him and took a closer look at the doll, "How can you tell?"

"Just ask him," Albiol told him.

Alvaro raised an eyebrow, but did it anyway, he turned to the whale, "Whale, whale, whale, are you pregnant?"

Albiol made a funny voice from behind the camera, "Whale, whale, whale I am."

Alvaro burst out laughing, the camera was shaking a bit as Albiol put it on pod. He showed up in front of the camera and kissed his boyfriend's cheek. "Maybe we should end the show," he said before moving back behind the camera.

"That's The D.I.V.E. Show for today. Goodnight, and happy new year, and as always, in the end, don't forget to—" the camera zoomed out and everyone in the room did the university's salutation, "Just keep diving!"


End file.
